


PNA:Project Prometheus

by SLVPNC



Category: RWBY
Genre: A Small Dash of Tournament! AU, Angst, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/F, F/M, Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-06-09 09:31:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 61,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6900499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SLVPNC/pseuds/SLVPNC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You could chalk it up to coincidence that your Team Name is pronounced "Aura". You raise an eyebrow when you realize that you and your friends semblances seem similar, but dismiss any ridiculous notions. Questions arise when you realize that they could be chained, combined to do something big. But are you and your friends ready to go that far? Of course not, you're just children, but that doesn't stop you from trying now does it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Authors Note: Hello, and thanks for taking a look. I will say it is my first attempt so I appreciate the feedback if you have some to contribute. The story is constantly being tweaked so their will be updates in chapters to inform you of those changes. Now for a few things about the story;
> 
> All the Characters have met and have gotten acquainted with each other, and Ruby has already be named leader of her team so I won't have to write the fight scenes It has only been about a week or so since Initiation so all the other major events have not happened yet. (Ill cross that bridge when I get there) Don't worry about Precious Bumblebee and WhiteRose since I do support it 100%. Don't be too surprised if scenes are Missing, modified, or Replaced. I will try my best to keep it somewhat 'Canon'. I also must apologize for any Out of Character traits from the four main characters you may encounter in the future, but please don't hesitate to point it out so that I can try and fix it. One Last thing is that very later on the chapters will began to shift the focus onto the OC's more, but that doesn't mean the focus will soley be them.
> 
> Now for a few words that will be mentioned in the story. These are to help you understand what I defined the words as.
> 
> Grifball: Remnants version of Football (Soccer). American Football will be refereed to as Gridiron Grifball or simply Gridiron.
> 
> HA: Hunter Association. The official governing body of Competitive Combat and the issuer of Hunter's Licenses.
> 
> FIGA: Fédération Internationale de Grifball Association. The governing body of Grifball. Gridiron is not governed by them.
> 
> FIGHA: Fédération Internationale de Grifball et Hunters Association. Conglomerate of FIGA and the HA. Governs the Prestigious Hunter and Grifball Champions League, Copa Defendores and the Vytal Tournament from the 39th Edition Forward..
> 
> Copa Defendores: Eng. Defenders Cup of the Cup of Protectors. The Mistralian Combat Tournament Renamed.
> 
> Atlesian Champions League: Atlas Combat Tournament.

* * *

 

"I swear that bed is going to kill me while I'm asleep." Weiss said while looking at the bed, since the window was open, a breeze came through and she noticed that bed started to rock a bit.

"Come on Weiss, it isn't that bad." Ruby was actually surprised the rope was holding well

"Ruby, The bed is tied up with rope….WITH ROPE! And it's rocking back and forth! Look!" Weiss actually was feeling a bit less tired after seeing that.

"I mean it could be worse….I could have tried tape"

"….Have you tried to do that?" Weiss raised an eyebrow, she wouldn't be surprised if she did try

"Nooooo…..maybe?" Ruby mumbled out while looking at the ground.

"Come on Weiss, don't be so hard on it, she did a really good job on that" Yang threw in, she was on top of her bed with her laptop browsing things on the internet.

"I'm pretty sure I have Blake to back me up on this since she is also in a similar position, right Blake?" Weiss was trying to get someone to side with her on the situation but it seemed like a moot point.

"I mean it saves space that could be used for other things. The idea is great but the execution could use some work, but if it works then why not just go with it?" Blake tried to side with Ruby and Yang, which got a small fist pump from Ruby.

"We have all this extra space, why not use that instead of making these?" Weiss still tried to argue her point, despite knowing it was a lost cause.

"Because I want to put a small table and maybe a TV and a Video Game Console and…" Yang listed what she wanted to do with the spare space, but was stop by the somewhat pissed of Weiss.

"Wait, your telling me we did all this" she points to the beds and the mended curtain "so that you could space for a TV?"

"Not just a TV Weiss…a Wall Mounted Flat screen TV. One of those fancy smartTVs, like from that one company. Was its Sansill? Or Hansung? Squashbug?" Yang was in a thinking pose while trying to figure out the name.

"…You mean Samsung?" replied Weiss in a flat tone. Clearly she was not amused and had decided to go to the bathroom to change into her sleep attire.

"Yeah that one!"

"Sis, why not get the one made by Vizio? Its dirt cheap and we can even use our scrolls as remotes since they have an IR Blaster!" Ruby remembered the one from the big electronics store some months back.

"Don't you need to have a specific type of scroll for that though?" Yang didn't even know these had IR Blasters.

"Our scrolls are made by HTC, which is owned by the PNA Corporation. All their phones have IR Blasters and work with stuff like that TV or something." Ruby replied while she checked her scroll.

"Ugh, don't even mention that company" Weiss had just come out of the bathroom.

"Why? What's wrong with them?" Ruby was curious. The PNA Corp had a good reputation of selling products to consumers which for the most part, weren't inexpensive. Except for their "Premium Line"…

"The fact that they sell stuff for such lower prices, the fact that they buy out up and coming businesses, ESPECIALLY if they have patents on certain things. Not to mention the fact that none of their products use dust anymore since it was the company was renamed years ago." Weiss said, her tone hinting a bit of annoyance at the topic.

"Princess, you're just mad that they don't need to buy your companies dust to make their stuff and the fact that they are a major rival to your company" Yang teased, trying to further irritate the Heiress.

"Exactly! What company doesn't need dust to make their products?" Weiss was baffled about that, the majority of things on Remnant used dust in some way shape or form.

"Clearly the PNA, since they seem to be doing fine without dust" Blake said in a tone of smugness. She really despised the way the Shnee Dust Corporation treated its Faunus workers. That was made clear the day after everyone had settled in. Though no one knew about her Faunus Traits….And her super-secret book of guilty pleasure.

"Alright, I think we should all hit the sack, Ozpin said something about an important assembly tomorrow." Ruby said as she walked out of the bathroom.

"What do you think it's about Blake?" Yang asked as she looked down toward Blake.

"I don't know, but the way Ozpin made it sound, it could be very important." Blake said as she put her book away.

"Well he DID say that it could alter one of the teams in a big way." said Weiss as she climbed up into her bed.

"That is true, anyway, we'll see tomorrow, night everyone" said Ruby as she turned off the lights

"Night Rubes"

"Goodnight"

"Night"

Auditorium. Around 1:00

People were chatting around the auditorium as Headmaster Ozpin was walking up to the microphone. Sporting his signature mug with some coffee.

"Good afternoon everyone. Today, we have received 2 Transfer students. Usually transfer students aren't a big deal, but this is. The reason for this is due to the fact that they will not be going into their own team. Instead, they will be placed into an existing team which will bump the number of members on a team from four to six. This is something that we usually try to avoid due to obvious balancing purpose among other things, I shall allow it to purposely happen on this one occasion. Before we choose the team that will get these two individuals, let meet them first." Everyone was looking at the side entrance as Ozpin starting to introduce the first student.

"Introducing first, from Atlas, she is two time winner of the Atlesian Regional tournament, please welcome Alexis Rhodes!" Walking up the ramp and behind Ozpin was a Girl with fair, milky white skin, Blonde hair that was naturally straight and not hung in anyway, and Brilliant Hazel Eyes.. She is wearing a White Sleeveless Vest with blue trim along with a blue skirt and matching Blue Fingerless gloves and boots. Her weapon is on her left arm and is in a dormant state. Some people start wolf whistling at her and Ruby was gawking at her, causing Yang starts giggling. On the podium, Alexis at this point was blushing furiously and tried to hide her blushing face behind her hands. Ozpin then immediately regained everyone's attention by clearing his throat. "Ok, now that the immaturity has ceased, let me introduce our other student." He then took another sip of his coffee before starting his monologue

"Introducing next, from Patch, he attended Signal academy and is the current CEO of the PNA Corporation, please welcome Alejandro Rojo!" Everyone was stunned. No one knew who the CEO of that Company is! Everyone was snapped out of being stunned as they heard music beginning to play. The lights around the arena where Ozpin was standing at begin to go crazy, until everyone began to notice that the lights were actually going to the beat of the music. On the big screen behind Ozpin, the PNA logo also spinning around to the beat. After about a minute and a half of waiting, the side entrance was the point of interest as Male with Caramel colored skin, slicked back hair and Brown eyes was walking towards the podium. He was wearing Blue Jeans and a Black T Shirt with the PNA Logo on the right breast. He also had a black long sleeve undershirt. On his left wrist was what at first glance looked like a typical digital watch, but upon closer inspection it was revealed to be one of those new Smartwatches with a touchscreen. Weiss and Blake stared in shock as Ruby and Yang were whispering to each other.

In Weiss' head, her thoughts were going rampant. 'No way! I don't believe this! He didn't tell me he would be the Head of the Company! He told me that we still be in touch. Did he forget? Does he even remember me? I hope he does…'

Ruby and Yang were also in disbelief and started to whisper to each other.

"Yang, it's…It's…

"I know Rubes, but the last time we saw him was two years ago."

"So?"

"He might not remember us"

"What do you mean? We grew up together as kids! You know… before he …" Ruby's tone faltered a bit as she trailed off.

"Yeah, maybe he will remember us." In the back of her mind, Yang was hoping he would. She remembered what happened to Ruby when she found out that he had left Signal. She was upset for months, almost an entire year before she got over it. And Yang doesn't believe that she truly had gotten over it. He was Ruby's only friend growing up. And that was through technicalities. Blake was deep in her own thoughts when she heard Yang and Ruby and was about to ask what the sisters were talking about when Ozpin's voice filled the Auditorium again.

"Now we are going to draw to see what team will receive these two superb students." Ozpin then started to type something into his scroll tablet. While that was going on, Alexis and Alejandro had decided to introduce themselves to each other.

"So you're the super-secret head genius man person in charge of PNA?" Alexis asked with a small smile.

"Yeah, pretty much. Not much to say about that since you basically summed that up in six words." Alejandro shot back jokingly with a smile of his own.

"Aren't you a little too…Young to be running a multi-billion Lien company?" she said that as she raised her eyebrow.

"Yeah, but so was Seto Kaiba…what's your point?" she tilted her head in acknowledgement.

"Fair Enough" she extended her arm, signaling for a handshake "Alexis Rhodes, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Alejandro Rojo, likewise." She took her hand and shook it.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"So, two time winner of the Atlesian Combat Tournament then?" asked Alejandro as he turned back to Alexis.

She grinned as she nodded her head and pointed at herself proudly. "Yup! I won my first one when I was a first year at my old Academy and my most recent victory was the tournament that just passed." It was his turn to nod in acknowledgement.

"Nice. I wasn't able to watch that tournament on TV. I was a little bit preoccupied at the time. Back at Patch, there isn't a huge tournament like that. Usually it's just all the students that go there face off in the typical IHA sanctioned style. You know, the double round robin group stage, the knockout stage, quarter, semis, and the final." Alexis nodded in agreement.

"Right, did you compete back at Patch?"

"Yeah. Unfortunately for me it didn't end well the two times I competed." Alexis was curious about that.

"What happened?"

Alejandro rubbed he neck sheepishly "The first time, I was knocked out of the tournament. Fairly straight foward. I failed to make it past the knockout stage." Alexis just mouthed 'Oh' before he went on. "The second time, I made it passed the knockout stage and actually made it to the semifinals, but was ejected and disqualified." That seemed to peak Alexis curiosity.

"What did you do?"

"I…may have performed a low blow on an opponent." She raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Why, what happened?"

"I was performing a standard move, but I guess the kid moved and jumped, and I accidently performed an uppercut where the sun doesn't shine." That caused Alexis to cringe. "They took a minute and went to video replay as the kid was on the ground, clutching his nether region and crying on the floor in pain. I guess they believed that it was intentional blow below the belt and I was ejected from the Area of Combat. They gave him the victory and he went on to lose at the final…in thirty seconds…"

"Wow that was a waste." He nodded in agreement.

"It was, the person who made the decision was actually one of the official refs of the Combat Tournament, not a faculty member of the school. He was criticized so hard when he made the decision, even more so when the final ended in about half a minute."

"Right, though do you believe it was intentional? Did you actually do it on purpose?" He shook his head.

"I didn't, hell I didn't even expect him to jump as he wasn't the type of person to do that, the guy usually didn't leave the ground unless he had to." She nodded, then noticed what the Headmaster was doing.

"What is he doing?" She pointed to him as he and Glynda were setting up the whole thing. He just shrugged.

"I don't know. Maybe they are doing this to see what team we end up on?" He looked back at the Headmaster and Professor before looking back at Alexis. "If I were him, I would have just thrown all the teams into a hat and picked from there." Alexis just looked at him incredulously.

"Really? A hat?" He just shrugged

"What? Do you expect me to actually do a ton of work just to see what team two kids end up?"

"Uh, Yeah, kind-of. I mean, you are sort of deciding their fate for the next 4 years" He just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I don't have the patience to do that. Just stick all the team names into a hat and pick."

"You would suck as Headmaster, you know that?" She said in a joking manner. He just shrugged

"Eh, that's why if I get offered a job as one, I'll reject it immediately." They both smiled before going quiet again, still watching Ozpin do final checks on the thing he was working on, while the students were chatting amongst themselves. The two of them were looking around, and Alejandro could have sworn he saw….no, he was probably imagining things. Alexis then began to talk to him again.

"So, where do you think we'll end up?" He just shrugged. "It'll probably be a team that is weak and needs help or something. You know, one that is either close to failing or is already failing." He raised an eyebrow at how she was acting…a bit arrogant.

"You sound like someone who has had that experience before. Has that happened already?" She nodded

"Yeah, back in Atlas we are only in teams for about 4 months or something unlike here where it's 4 years. But I would almost always be paired with people who were incompetent. I would ask why, and would always be told 'It's so you can help your fellow classmates'. It was annoying as hell because I am not some kind of super-human-I-can-backpack-the-god-damn-team. I'm a regular person, but professors always put me up on a pedestal as if I was a God or The Stig." Alejandro raised an eyebrow again.

"Top Gear reference?" She nodded. "You like the show?" She nodded again "Nice. Don't worry about incompetent teammates though. Since we got paired up as partners, I can assure you that I am not incompetent…usually." She just rolled her eyes and chuckled.

Meanwhile, Ozpin had finished setting up what he called dubbed the "Draft Lottery"

"Alright everyone, we will now see who will have these two students as teammates for the next 4 years." Ozpin said as he pressed a button and all the teams started to pop up in quick succession. Then the Beacon Academy logo showed up and the team was revealed and everyone was gasped audibly. "The team that will receive these two, is Team RWBY! Team RWBY, please stand up so they know who you are." As they stood up, they looked towards them and Alejandro was shocked at what he saw. Suddenly his mind was filled with different thoughts and different possible scenarios.

'It's Ruby and Yang! And Weiss! Oh god…I am going to be yelled, and hit and yelled some more and my god do I have some major explaining to do to them here… great. Maybe they'll let me live…Nope, no chance in hell. Though who is that girl with the bow?' As he was having a hidden mental breakdown, Alexis waved at the team, all of whom but Weiss waved back. She turned to Alejandro noticed that he had somewhat frozen and tried to snap him back into reality.

"Yoo-hoo, you there? Did you die and freeze here?" Alexis asked as she waved a hand in front of his face

"Wha- Im fine, just something caught my attention…yes….that" He then points at some random thing in the air

"That caugh-"Alexis was interrupted as Ozpin began to speak again

"Alright everyone, that was all that needed to be discussed today. Alejandro, Alexis, why don't you go and meet your teammates and roommates for the next 4 years?" Ozpin looked at the two of them as he spoke. The both nodded and started walking down the ramp into the crowd to find their teammates. Despite the fact that he is the Head of the 2nd largest Company in all of Remnant, all of that was done away from the public spotlight, and as a result his people skills weren't exactly the best in the world. As soon as they got there, Alexis introduced herself to everyone and instantly started conversing with Blake. While Alejandro had to deal with a confused Ruby, a fuming Weiss, and a Yang who looked somewhere between upset and about to rip your testes out, staple them to your forehead and call you a unicorn. Once everyone's attention turned towards him, only one thing went through his head.

'Well shit….'

 

* * *

 


	2. Chapter 2

Well…Might as well get on with it'

Just as Alejandro was about to great everyone, Ruby beat him to it and grabbed him in a very tight hug. Weiss looked on in surprise and Yang just looked as serious as she was before.

"OhmygodohmygodAlexitsbeensolonghowareyouwhathaveyoubeendoingdidyoumissmeandYang-"as Ruby was asking all these questions Yang pried Ruby off of him, much to her displeasure.

"Awww, Yang!"

Yang went over and gave him a very tight hug….a very tight one.

The brunette could literally feel his bones being repositioned and the air being squased out of his lungs.

"Yang, Please….Air…." He managed to choke out before Weiss had to intervene.

"Yang, could you please not kill him? We kind of need him alive now." He was relieved as she loosened up the embrace enough for him to regain some air.

"I come to greet you like I do, and you do this to me?" She asked in mock hurt. "Corporate has changed you man, you used to be a lot tougher."

"Ha ha very funny." He drawled, before Yang extended her arm into a handshake, which looked as if she was getting ready for an arm wrestling competition.

The brunette CEO smirked as he grabbed her hand, an audible slap as he made contact. The makeshift arm wrestling began, neither of them budging as they both tried to push the others arm. Weiss, Blake and Alexis watched with raised eyebrows as Ruby watched intently.

Yang began to get the upperhand, smirking as she slowly began pushing her arm down. Her smirk grew a little bit as she heard a soft grunt.

"What's the matter, the PNA got you pushing too many pens? Hm?" she taunted. Her eyebrows rose in surprise as he began to fight back. A small smirk formed on his face.

Ruby noticed that they had gotten back to square one, so before someone popped a blood vessel she decided to intervene.

"Alright, see Yang? He hasn't lost his edge!" She said as the Scythewielder pried their hands.

"I went easy on her." He returned in jest.

"Pfft, as if Richboy. Actually now that you are Rich, we can legit call him Richboy!" She exclaimed.

Weiss simply facepalmed, before a thought got her attention"Alejandro, you know these buffons?" She asked, surprising both Yang and Ruby and making Yang comment on it.

"Alex, you know the Ice Queen?" She taunted Weiss, causing her to glare at the brawler.

"Yes…and Yes…." He wasn't expected a show.

"The three looked at him incredulously before looking back at each other and back at him. "How!?" Weiss and Yang asked at the same time. Ruby was just sheepishly rubbing her head. Blake and Alexis had simply been watching the whole time.

"I'll tell you everything once we get to our room. I don't want to share details with the general public." He gestured around everyone as they began the trek to their dorm. Ruby had decided to walk next to Weiss, something about feeling natural was her reasoning. Alex had fallen behind and was walking next to Blake. He turned and remembered that he didn't get to properly introduce himself to her.

"I didn't get the chance to introduce myself to you, my name is Alejandro. " He said while looking at Blake

"I understand why, it isn't exactly easy when someone is arm wrestling." she joked with a small smile. "My name is Blake. Blake Belladonna. Pleasure to meet you." She added, extending her hand out.

"Likewise" he responded, taking her hand and giving it a firm shake. "It's just a small thing, nothing much really past it." He elaborated.

"Right, understandable. But I am a bit curious as to how you know the three." The brunette girl responded, curiosity getting the better of her.

"As soon as we-"he was cut off by Ruby

"And here we are, Welcome to Team RWBY's Dorm!" she said enthusiastically. She then used her scroll to open the door "Tada!" As everyone went inside, both Alexis and Alejandro just stared at the beds, the Blonde immediately asking on behalf of their health.

"Why are the beds being held up by Rope and Books?" She looked at the beds, swearing that she saw them move. Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose as she gave them an explination.

"Yang and Ruby thought it would be a good idea to make bunk beds to have space for a TV and other useless things" She spat, not please in the slightest. The scythe wielding dolt was going to get her killed! But she couldn't stop herself from thinking of said dolt recently…

"We aren't going to have to do that….Right?" Alejandro asked Alexis, he really didn't want to do that, he knew those beds weigh a lot.

"We don't even have beds for the two of you!" Yang said, rummaging for something in the mini-fridge.

"Ozpin said he had some people who would bring out beds to the dorm, he just didn't say when" Alexis responded.

"He did? When?" He asked, confused. He remembered Ozpin saying something about the beds, but he tuned him out after something about homework. Alexis just looked at him, deadpanned.

"Really? Didn't you pay attention when we were in his office?" He had to think for second. Paying attention wasn't exactly his forte.

"Ohhhhh….no, not really." He said, flexing his jaw nerviously.

"Not incompetent huh?" She said sarcastically, arms crossed and a small smirk on her face.

"Can we start hanging our stuff up and putting it away?" Clearly ignoring Alexis retort, he grabbed his suitcase and lifted it to show them.

Ruby pointed to the empty closet in the corner of the room "You guys can hang your clothes there." Then pointed to the very long dresser. "There is the place our undergarments go, you get ONE drawer." Alejandro then raised his hand. "What?"

"This laptop." He took out said Laptop "Where can it go?"

"It can go on top of the very large dresser. We sometimes use it as a desk if the desk is in use." He nodded as he put his second backpack on the dresser before gabbing his suitcase.

As he started to make his way to the closet, Yang stopped him "Alright, are you address the elephant in the room or what? How do you know the ice queen?"

"Yeah, how do you know this brute and her dolt of a sister?" Weiss added on, keeping to herself how said dolt looked really good for some reason lately.

"Alright, Alright." He said as he grabbed a bottle of an Orange Beverage. Popping it open, he sat down on a chair.

"So it goes like this…"


	3. Chapter 3

"So first let's go with Weiss, How do I know Yang and Ruby? Simple, I grew up with them." He started, surprising the heiress. He continued "Parent's were good friends with mine and we often were at their house. I'd end up playing with them while they did their adult stuff. I'm not going into details, but we are close."

Yang reached over, swinging her arm around his neck and bringing him close. You could hear his neck cracking.

"Yup! We grew up together, know each other secrets and stuff. Pretty cool right? We could even share some!"

"Yang, I'd rather you not do that please." He said, trying to get comfortable as Yang held his neck.

"Alright, I won't embarrass you…yet." She teased, making him sigh. Letting go of him, he took a drink of his orange beverage before turning to Yang and Ruby.

"As for you two and how I know Weiss…You know that I kinda run a company right?" They all nodded. Weiss, knowing where this was going, covered her hands in shame. "Well, when you have an old fart as President of a company, and they have a daughter, they try to get her together with some other rich person from another family."

"Ok…" Yang motioned with her hand to speed this up. "Annnnd?"

"Well Weiss's father, Heir Ødegård Schnee, thought that since I had money I must be from a wealthy family. So imagine my surprise when I am leaving and am taken by these huge buff guys, thrown into a limo and taken to the Eisentracht Mansion/Fortress."

"Wait, you were kidnapped?" Alexis asked for them all, Weiss kept hiding her face in shame. But she let out a small smirk at the story. It was still funny.

"Yeah, and it gets better. So I'm in this limo, probably thinking that I'm going to die. I didn't have my weapon and the doors were made up of something beyond normal materials. I eventually end up at the mansion and am escorted into said mansion. After walking for what seemed like 5 Grifball fields and a small shopping center, we arrived at this huge dining hall. Sitting at the table was Ødegård and next to him was Weiss." Everyone turned to her, noticing that she was hiding her face. Though only Ruby saw that she was trying to hide a small smile. Inside the Crimson Haired girl, something felt…good about seeing her smile.

"So he starts talking to me in Atlesian, which I can't speak very well, and end up picking up a few words here and there. He leaves, leaving me with her. The first thing I asked was 'What did he say?', which prompted her to laugh at my expense."

"Wait…Weiss….laughing?" Yang asked, shocked "That is Out of Character as hell, Weiss is always a moody, someone-shat-in-her-cornflakes, stick-up-her-"

"Yang." Blake interrupted. "Behave." She scolded.

"Anyway, we talk and get to know eachother and what not and it's all fine and dandy. We don't leave the mansion or anything since it's like a small city, anything you could want is probably in that castle." He paused to take another sip of his orange beverage. "Fast forward sometime and Ødegård comes onto the field where I am, kicking a grifball as I do, and promptly orders me to and I quote 'Verdammt, hauen Sie ab!'. He then proceeds to have me removed from the very large premises. I ended up finding out that because I run the competition to his SDC, he thinks I am going to use Weiss for my own personal gain."

"And were you?" Ruby asked.

He pursed his lips and shook his head. "No, that's unethical and uncompetitve like….and Rude."

"Dang." Yang whistled, a sly smirk on her face. "Does this main that you two did the dance with no pants?" That earned a blushing glare from Weiss and a confused etched face from Alex

"You blonde brute! Why must be so…so…lewd! And for your information we did not do anything!" Yang smirked as she answered.

"If I don't then who will?" That earned a laugh from Alex.

"I missed that so much." He turned to Alexis and Blake "Alright, now that that's cleared up, do you two have any questions?" Alexis shook her head. Blake responded though.

"Not right now, though you wouldn't mind if I ask you later?" The truth was, Blake wanted to know about the way Faunus are treated there. She heard stories, similar to that of the SDC, but she would give him the benefit of the doubt since that seemed to have happened before he was in charge.

"Sure." Blake nodded. "Aight then let's-"a loud knocking interrupted up. While Weiss was trying to stab Yang, he opened the door and found what looked like his and Alexis' beds. She was able to save Yang from getting impaled and in return helped him bring them in. They then proceeded to set it up in the open space where Yang had her plans for stuff.

"Hey, My TV was going to go in that side!" she whined and Alexis responded before Alex could.

"What do you propose we do?" Alexis asked with a raised eyebrow. Ruby responded to that

"Make some bunk beds too!" Alejandro instantly shot that down before her question was even finished being asked.

"No…No..mmm mmm….MMM MMM…" He shook his head "no…no…no…no. no. No. NO. NO! Hell No! No! No! I refu-NO….No" It was clear that he didn't want bunk beds "Look Yang, we will find a place to mount your TV, but I am not making bunk beds…Especially ones that are supported by books." Alexis had to stifle a laugh at the pitch of his panic sticken voice was priceless. Yang took this as an oppurtunutiy to extract revenge on him for taken away her TV space.

"Alex is afraid of falling off the bed. It's because when he was small, he-"

"OK! Thank you Yang!" he shouted sarcastically. "No one wants to talk about it."

Once they got accommodated, they both checked their schedules for the classes they would be taking. After all that was sorted out and he has his supplies in his bag. He stomach growled, signaling the time to find some nourishment.

"When can we go eat? I'm hungry." Alexis nodded in agreement. Weiss suggested that they should go and get dinner. As they got to the cafeteria, they noticed that Team JNPR was already at the table waiting for them and waved. Once they got their food, and in the time which Weiss and Alexis gave Alejandro flak for his choice of chicken nuggets and some fries, they sat with JNPR and they introduced themselves to the two newest-temporary members of Team RWBY. Juane instantly introduced himself to Alexis first.

"The name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it." Alexis just chuckled nervously, choosing to scoot away from the blonde boy and closer to Alex.

"Hello! I'm Pyrrha Nikos." Alexis and Alejandro both shook her hand before Ren introduced himself.

"Lie Ren, but everyone just calls me Ren."

"I'm Nora! Did you know that sloths make different noises based on the time of day?" She then proceeded to demonstrate the noise sloths make during the day time. Both Alexis and Alejandro just blinked as they saw the display in front of them. Once they had introduced themselves to Team JNPR, they just chatted about stuff and got to know each other. Yang occasionally liked to stick her nose where it didn't belong, but overall it went well.

Eventually, they both decided to head their separate ways. While walking behind the others, Alexis and Alejandro initiated in some small talk.

"So Alexis, how are you liking our team and the school?" He asked

"Honestly, I thought we would be put on some team that needs help being trained….or keeping up on their grade by piggybacking but the team we were placed in is cool so far. What about you?" The blonde asked. Something about him caught his attention, and there was some kind of pressure within her. It was uncomfortable or anything, it felt…Nice? Though it only seemed to happen if she was near the brunette boy. She ignored it, probably blaming it on the Jetlag.

"We those two, this is going to be fun." He replied, a smile on his face. His smile made that feeling within the blonde swell for some odd reason as well.

As they got back, everyone changed into their sleepwear. Alexis had similar pajamas to Yang, except her Tank Top was Blue and white, and her shorts were baggy and longer. Alejandro's sleep wear consisted of a White shirt with Black sweat pants. They said their good nights and went to bed, getting rested up to tackle the day tomorrow.


	4. Chapter 4

A loud shrill awoke five of the six members of RWBY. This caused Yang and Alejandro to roll off of their beds hit the floor.

"Wha- whowherewhywhenhow?" Alex asked quickly as he looked around. Yang just groaned, face down on the floor. Alexis and Weiss were looking for the source and once they found it, showed their displeasure by glaring at their leader. Blake just looked on, as she was already dressed.

"Good morning Team RWBY!" Ruby exclaimed happily.

"Really Ruby? A whistle? I would have been fine with just pushing me on the floor, and pouring some scalding hot water on me or something…" Alejandro replied to Ruby.

"I knew you wouldn't wake up like that, so I used this whistle! Kills 4 birds with one stone!" Ruby replied as she fixed her cape. Since he was not a morning person, Alejandro grabbed his stuff and walked to the bathroom.

"I'm going to take a shower…"

"I know how long you take in there Alex, leave some hot water for the rest of us!" Yang remembered how back at Patch, he would use all the hot water and leave Yang to bathe with freezing cold water.

"You have your semblance to warm you up. As for the two of you-"he looked at Alexis and Weiss, shrugged and said "if there isn't any more hot water…." He yawned "bad luck then." Then he went inside. Once inside, Yang noticed Alexis sitting up on her bed, and apparently everyone else noticed her as well. Alexis noticed everyone had been looking at her and started to feel really uncomfortable.

"Uhm, Hi…Is there something on my face?" She didn't know what was going on. Yang got the chance and spoke up first.

"No, there isn't anything on your face. It's just that we haven't had the chance to talk properly to you since Ruby, Weiss and myself were a bit preoccupied with him" he pointed to the person in the bathroom. Alexis understood and decided to tell the group a bit about herself.

"Well, my full name is Alexis Rhodes, I'm turning 17 soon. I was born and raised in Atlas. I studied at the Atlesian Hunters Academy. And I won the Bundescup recently" Weiss interrupted her.

"Are you serious?" Yang asked

"Yeah, but Unlike the Regional Tournament for Mistral, which is every year, and the Vytal Hunters Cup, which is every other year, The Atlesian Bundescup is held every four years and only students from select Academies are allowed to participate. Occasionally though, the committee in charge of running the tournament invites students from other Academies outside the country to participate, the winner getting a guaranteed spot for the Vytal Tournament if they win." Alexis explained, playing down the importance of the tournament. Yang and Ruby's eyes went wide. Has she participated in the tournament before?

"Does that mean this will be your second Vytal Tournament?" Ruby asked the blonde, jumping giddly.

"No, I was too young to participate in the Tournament the first time. So I got a guaranteed spot for the next regional tournament and some money. The person in fourth place got to go since the second and third place participants were also too young." Both Yang and Ruby "ohhed" at that. Alexis went on, "Though this time I am old enough and will be attending." Weiss, who was grabbing her stuff to get ready, suddenly remembered her from the time she went with her father as a sponsor.

"Wait, you were the person that one by No-Contest against that one kid, right?" Alexis smirked as she recalled the memory.

"Yup! Poor kid scrapped by to get to the final…So sad" Alexis responded and shrugged her shoulders. That match only lasted about a minute thirty three seconds.

Weiss then asked another question. "How did you and Alejandro get accepted into Beacon now though? I mean classes start today [1], but initiation happened a week or so ago." That got Ruby, Weiss and Yang's attention. How did they get acceptance so late? Alexis rubbed her head embarrassingly as she answered.

"Um... I don't know about him. I applied normally and was accepted with no problem. The reason I was late was because was because I didn't get to the last Airship to Beacon that day. The Vale Port Authority was nice enough to at least accommodate me for the night in a hotel and book my next flight free of charge." Alex then stepped out and then Yang ran passed Weiss. That didn't make Weiss to happy. And she voiced her unhappiness.

"You blonde brute! I was next!" Yang responded from behind the door.

"You snooze, you lose Princess, ask Alex. He can back me up on that" then the shower started up from the other side. Weiss sigh, annoyed at that and grabbed a chair. She decided to ask Alejandro how he got accepted.

"Alejandro?"

"Yo"

"How did you get accepted to Beacon so late? And why did you even come here in the first place?" That caught him off guard. He scratched his head the same way Alexis did before answering.

"I… uh may have stopped a major robbery in progress?"

Ruby obviously wanted to know everything that happened so she fired off questions in rapid succession. "Oh my God! How did you do that? Did you use your uber fighting skills?" Ruby's eyes widened before she asked the next question in a whisper "Did you kill them?"

"You dolt! Don't ask too many questions! You're overwhelming him." Weiss scolded Ruby, who apologized to her before apologizing to him. He laughed before he answered the questions in order.

"It's fine Weiss. No need to apologize Ruby, you're curious and want to know. Fair enough. Yes. I also did use my 'uber' fighting skills. And no, I didn't kill them. I captured two and one of them got away unfortunately. The guy that got away had a top hat and a cigar in his mouth. He also fought with a cane as well. Weird combo. Anyway, I caught the attention from someone here... So here I am." He purposly left out some details. Shrugging his shoulders, he grabbed his scroll and shoved it in his pocket. Ruby eyes widen again as she remembers someone matching the description.

"Wait! I think I know who you're talking about, I stopped him from stealing some dust from a local dust shop, and it's how I got here in the first place!" Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Wow he must really be popular then..." Everyone turned to the bathroom door that just slammed open.

"Man, nothing like a shower in the morning to start you off on the right foot. Though these uniforms could use some work though." She shrugged as Weiss went into the bathroom. Alejandro was the first to respond to that.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that you were such a fashionista back at Patch." He shot, remembering how he would always get asked questions from Yang regarding her outfit. Yang was apparently had a response at the ready.

"At least I don't wear the same thing all the time"

"I don't wear the same thing all the time. I just happen to buy the same jeans, and the same shirt."

Yang then decided to tease him a bit more. "You probably where the same boxers everyday"

The brunette had obviously caught on to what Yang was doing before he answered in a monotone voice. "Yes Yang, I wear the same boxer briefs every day. I have no sense of style in terms of clothing, you are the ultimate definition of a fashionista. Please teach me your ways O-Great master of hip clothing." Y

ang had a small pout on her face as she responded. "Oh boo, it's no fun when you admit it voluntarily." He rolled his eyes as he put on his watch, which was laying on the small nighstand.

"If I didn't, then someone would either be dead or dying from your puns" Yang then had a grin on her face.

"It's just that people can't handle my puns. I will say this though, when you go out to eat, eating an eagle is legal. However, if it's sick, it's... ill-eagle. Eh? Eh?" Blake, and Weiss roll their eyes and shook their heads while Ruby and Alejandro groaned.

"Why Yang…Why? That one was even remotely part of the conversation!"

"My puns are funny and you know it. You laugh at them all the time." As he was putting his watch on, he walked towards Ruby. "I am so sorry I left you alone to suffer through this, horrendous abuse. I will compensate you in some way…eventually?" Ruby just nodded with a grin as Alexis finished up. She did not look happy though.

"You-"she pointed at Alex "Used up all the hot water. I had to shower with some freezing cold water!"

"Sorry?" He tried, but it was a futile attempt.

"You are going to be the last one to take a shower from here on out, got it?" Her face wore a scowl that could scare the dead back to death. He agreed in an instant.

"Yes Sir! I mean Ma'am!" Ruby and Yang giggled at his expense. Ruby then pulled out an itinerary with all the classes for the day.

"Alright Team RWBY! Our second order of business iiiiiiiis...! Classes... At 9, we've got to be-"She was interrupted by Weiss

"What?! Did you say 9 o'clock?" Ruby, confused, responded.

"Uuuum…" Weiss, exasperated at this point, responded.

"Its 8:55, you dunce!" and she ran out. As she ran out, both Team RWBY and JNPR watched her go before Ruby responded

"To Class!" the rest of Team RWBY followed. Juane then loses his balance before panicking

"Class...? We're gonna be late!"

The two teams caught up to Weiss and Ruby as they were running across the courtyard to get to class. In the distance, Glynda and Ozpin looked on, with Ozpin simply taking a sip of his coffee.


	5. Chapter 5

Professor Port's Class

"Monsters! Deeeemons... Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!"

'Ho-leee crap…I am about to pass out' As Professor Port kept talking, Alejandro kept trying not to fall asleep as he yawned for what seemed like the tenth time within five minutes. 'I never believed that it was possible to do so but damn, he just goes on and on and on an-'his internal monologue was stopped by a tap on the arm. It was Alexis who seemed irritated and was glaring at him. She then whispered to him

"Alejandro, pay attention. You're going to miss something important!"

"Alexis, he just drones on about his childhood and stories about Grimm and says bad jokes." His claim is further backed up as the Professor tells another bad joke. "See my point?" She just rolls her eyes.

"You never know, this could all be on the test." He rolled his eyes. Then he got an idea

"I highly doubt that..." they both turned to here Professor Port finish up his story.

"Uhhhh... And you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy! Now, as I was saying: Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world! Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses..." He then winks at Yang, causing her to groan uncomfortably "Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves! From what, you ask? Why, the very world!" A student then yells from his seat from the third row.

"Ayyyy-yep!" Everyone just stared at him as he sat back down. Port then swiftly moves on goes back to tell another story.

"That is what you are training to become. But first: A story. A tale of a young, handsome man... Me! When I was a boy..." Alejandro just throws his head back against the chair as he looks at the others before throwing his head back on the desk. He then starts to play around with his watch, just swiping the notification cards back and forth on the little screen.

On the other side of the row, Weiss is starting to get really agitated at Ruby's' antics. She noticed Ruby doodling and tried to get her back on track, but obviously she was too busy. When she finished, Ruby snickers at her creation and shows it to her teammates: A circle with lines for arms and a smaller circle for a head, with stink lines coming from him and "Professor Poop" written underneath. Blake, Alejandro and Yang are heard laughing, but Weiss and Alexis just looked annoyed. Weiss even more so. As Professor Ports story went on, , Ruby was agitating Weiss even more. First she falls back to sleep, then wakes up and starts balancing an apple on a book with her pencil held only by her finger. What set her off is when Ruby started to pick her nose in a not so subtle fashion. At this point, Professor Port had finally finished his story.

"So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of Hunter?" Fuming over what Ruby had been doing, Weiss raised her hand.

"Well, then, let's find out!" he turns to gesture at the glowing red eyes surrounded by shadow and shakes the cage that traps it "Step forward, and face your opponent! But first, go and change into your combat attire" As she leaves, Professor Port starts to tell another story to pass the time.

Yang got Blake's attention and whispered to her "I think Ice Princess in way over her head..." She just smiled at Yang. Before she could say anything, Weiss had come out in her combat attire and Professor Port had finally finished his story. She got in her fight stance as the rest of Team RWBY Cheered her on.

Yang raised her fist and yelled first "Goooo, Weiss!"

Blake waved a small flag saying RWBY as she said "Fight well!"

Alexis pulled out a Foam Finger with RWBY on it as she cheered "Let's Go Weiiiisss Let's Go!"

Alex had what looks a Team RWBY headband and right wristband, and drank something out of a Team RWBY Thermal Mug spoke in an Atlesian accent [1]. "Weiss, give that thing a taste of Atlesian Engineering!"

Ruby cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled "Yeah, represent teeeeam RWBY!"

Out of all that, what Ruby said caught her attention."Ruby! I'm trying to focus!" Ruby looks down sheepishly

"Oh, um... Sorry..." Port then snaps her out of it as his voice booms aloud

"Allllright!" He is next to the cage, and pulls out his axe "Let the match... begin!" The professor swings down and breaks the lock, dropping the cage door and reveals the Boarbatusk inside, which then immediately begins to charge at Weiss. She uses Myrtenaster to deflect its attack and she rolls to the side, readying herself for its next move. The Grimm stands a distance away from its enemy, studying her. Port comments on this. "Ha! You didn't expect that, did you?" Ruby proceeds to try to give her some moral support.

"Hang in there, Weiss!" She speeds towards the oncoming Boarbatusk, sticking her blade straight at its skull until they clash and Myrtenaster gets trapped in the beast's tusks. Weiss hangs on to the hilt, and is tossed around as she struggles to get her rapier back. Port also comments on this, believing it's a new strategy.

"New approach. Very Bold. I like it!" Ruby keeps up with the moral support.

"Come on, Weiss, show it whose the boss!" Weiss turns to glare at Ruby, only for the Boarbatusk to turn its head and rip the sword from her grip. Myrtenaster lands far away from her, who is knocked back by the creature's tusks. Everyone is now suddenly interested at the fight in progress. Port points this out

"Oh-ho! Now what will you do without your weapon?" Weiss looks up just in time to see the Boarbatusk charge at her again, and rolls out of the way just in time to avoid getting trampled and causes it to crash into a desk. Weiss rushes at her sword and slides to it to get it back in her hand.

"Weiss! Go for its belly! There's no armor underneath-"

"Ruby! Stop telling me what to do!" Ruby looks hurt at Weiss' rebuttal and looks down dejectedly. Meanwhile, the Boarbatusk leaps into the air and rolls into a ball, spinning rapidly in the air and lands on the ground, gaining speed until it launches itself at Weiss. It comes closer and closer, but Weiss activates her semblance and one of her blue-white circles and blocks the roll, leaps up into the now-black snowflake symbol and turning it blue again so she can drive the blade into the Boarbatusk's stomach. It squeals and falls silent and Weiss gasps in relief. She looks up and hears Port commending her.

"Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training!" As Weiss stands up at attention from her exhausted position, Ruby continues to frown and Port keeps going "I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and... Stay vigilant! Class dismissed!" Weiss glares at her team, before she turns away, walking hurriedly to the exit past her teammates. Jaune sees that speaks up.

"Sheesh, what's with her?" The remaining members of team RWBY look at each other with the same question as they leave. Weiss, still mad, is still storming off, but Ruby turns a corner and manages to catch up with her.

"Weiss!" she answers her leader an attitude

"What?"

"What's wrong with you? Why are you being-?"

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? You're supposed to be a leader, and all you've been so far is a nuisance!" Ruby scoffs at the accusation.

"What did I do?"

"That's just it - you've done nothing to earn your position! Back in the forest, you acted like a child, and you've only continued to do so!" Ruby, shocked at Weiss, asks her about her abrupt change of heart.

"Weiss, where is this coming from? What happened to all the talk about 'working together'? I thought you believed in acting as a team." It was Weiss' turn to scoff as she answered

"Not a team led by you. I've studied and trained. And quite frankly, I deserve better." She turns her back to Ruby, who tries to reach out but drops her hand with the following words "Ozpin made a mistake." And walks away as Ruby looks down dejectedly. She is surprised as Headmaster Ozpin begins to speak behind her.

"Hmm... Now that didn't seem to go very well." Ruby turns around looking doubtful and even on the verge of tears.

"Is she right? Did you make a mistake?" Ozpin laughs slightly

"That remains to be seen." Meanwhile, Weiss is still walking around the halls, until she comes across a balcony where Professor Port is watching the sunset over Beacon Academy's rooftops. Weiss approaches him

"Professor Port!" Port turns around to look at her.

"Ah, Miss Schnee! And to what do I owe this fine pleasure?"

"I... I really enjoyed your lecture!"

"Of course you did, you have the blood of a true Huntress in you." Weiss smiles a little, before frowning again.

"You really think so?"

"Most certainly!" he notices Weiss' small frown and her lack of eye contact before speaking again. "Hmm... Something's troubling you." She nods a little.

"Yes, sir..."Port laughs a bit

"Well then dear girl, confess to me your strife!" Weiss takes a deep breath before she speaks

"Well... I… I believe that I should have been the leader of team RWBY." Port is silent for a moment until he speaks up

"Why, that's preposterous!" Meanwhile, with Ruby and Ozpin…

"What do you mean, Headmaster?"

"I mean, it's only been one day. Ruby... I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet. But at this moment, I would not consider your appointment to leader to be one of them." He leans in so he can look more directly at Ruby "Do you?" At the same time, Weiss gets angry at Port's confession.

"Excuse me?!" He was unfazed by the way she responds

"I've believed in Professor Ozpin for many years, and the man's never once led me astray!" Weiss didn't understand, surely he wasn't serious.

"So you would just blindly accept his decision even after seeing how exceptional I am?"

"With all due respect, your exceptional skill on the battlefield is matched only by your poor attitude." At hearing this, Weiss was seething.

"How dare you!" Port just raises a very large eyebrow.

"My point exactly. I see a girl before me who has spent her entire life getting exactly what she wanted." Weiss crossing her arms, looking at him defiantly.

"That's not even remotely true!" Being under the Professors gaze, she relents reluctantly "Well... not entirely true." As she converses with Professor Port, Ozpin is still speaking with Ruby.

"Being a team leader isn't just a title you carry into battle, but a badge you wear constantly. If you're not always performing at your absolute best, then what reason do you give others to follow you?" Ruby looks thoughtful with Ozpin's words, then smiles at him. Professor Port continues speaking to Weiss

"So the outcome did not fall in your favor. Do you really believe that acting in such a manner would cause those in power to reconsider their decision?" Weiss finally calms down and looks at him again "So instead of fretting about what you don't have, savor what you do. Hone your skills, perfect every technique, and be not the best leader, but the best person you can be. Not just to your leader, but your team, your friends." Weiss smiles a little at the words of wisdom. In the hallway, Ozpin finishes up talking with Ruby.

"You've been burdened with a daunting responsibility, Ruby. I advise you take some time, talk to someone else about it, maybe think about how you will uphold it. Just because you are a Leader, doesn't mean you must carry the burden alone." Ruby, with a last look of consideration, nods and begins walks away. She comes to the balcony where Port is walking away from Weiss and smiles a little at her partner. She begins to feel something in her chest and stomach, a sort of fluttering feeling as she looks at Weiss. Shaking her head, she walks away, taking out her scroll and begins typing something out to Yang, hoping to talk to her. She receives a response almost instantly but frowns, unhappy at the message she received. So she went to find the next best person.

* * *

Later in the day, The Library.

"Whoa, this place is huuuuuge!" Alejandro exclaims in awe. Alexis just shakes her head. They agreed to come here and do some homework to avoid distractions that would usually be at the dorm.

"It is big, I will give you that. So where do you want to sit?" He shrugged.

"I don't know. Pick a spot and let's go." Alexis looks around and sees a less crowded area. She points it out and they make their way to it before sitting down, leaving their bags on the side of the table next to them. The both pull out some papers and begin to work on the different class assignments. After about an hour of small talk and working, Alejandro finishes. That stunned Alexis as he seemed to have more work than she did.

"How did you finish so quickly" he answered her as he stretched.

"I learned to multitask. Plus most of this was easy." She grabs his papers to check if they are right.

"Hey! Get your own!"

"Relax, I'm just checking them" She was surprised to see that they were all correct and handed it back to him.

"See, I told you." She was a bit disappointed though, as her plan was to spend some time with him. Alone.

"So are you going back to the dorm then?" She tried to not sound disappoointed.

He shook his head and a response "No, at least not right now. There isn't anything to do at the dorm, plus I like spending time with you. It's relaxing." Alexis smiled at him and blushed slightly, thanking deity in existance that he was facing the opposite direction while he cracked his back.

"Hi Alex! Hi Alexis! Hey I just noticed, Alexis is just Alex with an 'Is' added at the end." The brunette and Blonde simply blinked at her in confusion

"So it is, how can we help you Ruby?" The swordwoman asked. Ruby had a gist of what was happening even though she knew for a fact Alejandro didn't. He was as dense as lead. Ruby wasn't as naive as everyone thought….sort of. She felt kind of bad asking, but it was important.

"Can I borrow Alex for a bit? I want to talk to him about something." Alexis face fell a bit, but it returned with a smile.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Thanks Alexis." She grabbed Alejandro's arm and walked away. He waved at her as they walked. Once they were out of the library, they proceeded to walk around the halls.

They were both silent as they walked along the path. Ruby took a deep breath to calm herself down as he asked the brunette."Alex, do you think that Ozpin was right?"

He just looked at her as they kept walking, not exactly knowing what this was about. "Right about what?"

Ruby elaborated "Do you think he made the right decision? By choosing me to lead this team?"

He smiled at her and patted her on the shoulder. "Ruby, if the Headmaster made you Leader, he didn't do it because he wanted to take the piss. He saw something that made his decision final. Trust me on that." She smiled at him but was interrupted by him again "Ozpin made you leader because he knows that you will lead this team to success. I know that is what you want. I also know that you want to help people, like in the stories Yang read to us." He smiled sadly, he missed Yang and Ruby when he was in Atlas.

Ruby then remembered something and asked him about it. "Do you still plan to become a hunter?" Alex narrowed his eyebrows, in a thinking pose of sorts. He had to run a company, but this was what he really wanted. He looked down at Ruby, who was still waiting for his response. He then understood where she was going with this.

"Of course! Were going to go around the world to help those who can't help themselves!" Ruby beamed, they've talked about this since they were small kids. "I don't care that I have to run this company, I will standby like I said I would. We are going to go around the world and kick some Grimm ass and chew some bubblegum. Speaking of which, do you have any?" she shook her head. "Damn, whatever. Like I said before, I will standby you when we do this. Just give me a couple days' notice though. I have to stock up on my Orange Beverage" She rolled her eyes playfully.

"You still drink that?"

"Of Course! 'Tis only the best drink in the history of the Universe and you very well know that thank you very much"

"Its K" He stopped in his tracks, how dare she call the best drink in the Universe 'K'

"No, it's the best drink in the universe. Period."

"It's K"

"Fine, by that logic, Sugar cookies are 'K' " he just threw a low blow there and Ruby was not having that.

"How dare you insult the Glorious Sugar Cookie!" He shrugged as a small smirk tugged at his lips.

"Chocolate Chip cookie is by far the better option" Ruby was not having that.

"I think coffee is a better drink than your 'Orange Beverage'." Oh. Hell. No.

"How dare you compare my Glorious Drink to that vile, steaming, disgusting brown liquid that you have to work on in order to get it to your liking!"

"You just hate doing Manual Labor"

"How dare you speak the truth!" Ruby started to laugh at his serious façade. He tried to make a serious face which caused her to laugh even harder and fall to the floor, clutching her sides. She was gasping for air when she finally stopped.

"Oh….my…..Dust…..help….can't….breath!" He just rolled his eyes

"Stop overacting, you're fine. How about we agree to disagree?" Ruby nodded her head as they got back to walking. He checked his watch and realized that he left Alexis alone in the library for over an hour now. "Crap, I forget I left Lex in the library." He slapped his hand in front of his mouth as if to stop the works from coming out, but it was too late.

"Lex?" His cheeks turned almost as red as her cloak. She smiled sweetly at him…Too sweetly. "Aww, you already gave her a nickname! That's so cute!" Alex just groaned.

"Sod it." She smirked. He only said those words when he was embarrassed or in a similar situation to this and never held any disdain.

"Nah, that so sweet. Alex and Lex, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-" she was interrupted by a poke on the side, which made her squeak.

"How old are you? Five?" She pouted

"Come on, let me have some fun" Then she began to sing again "Alex and Lex, sitting in a tree, K-" she didn't even begin to spell it before he began his evil dialogue.

"You know I'm going to get you back for that right? I'll get you back…It could be later tonight, or It could be tomorrow" Her face paled. He always kept his word when he said that. "But I will get you back" She swiftly changed the topic as she looked around.

"AAANYWAY, I'll be back at the dorm if you need me." She paused before walking away "Thanks Alex, I knew I could always talk to you." He just shrugged his shoulders.

"Eh, it's no problem. I guess I'll see you back at the dorms."

"Yeah, thanks again Alex. Bye-bye!" She waved and in returned received a two finger military salute, and then turned around and she made her way to the dorms. Alejandro had to run back to the library as he had wasted too much time already. When she got there, he saw her just looking at her phone. He noticed she had a small frown as he got closer, but she didn't notice him.

He slowly walked behind her, she was still oblivious to his terrible stealth.

"Hey." She jumped and grabbed her chest, her heart was beating hard against her chest.

"What was that for?! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"Sorry, I didn't think I would scare you. Did you finish your things?" She shook her head

"I needed your help on a couple of questions, but you were busy talking with Ruby. So I saved them until you got back" He heard a bit of something else in her voice as she mentioned Ruby, but couldn't figure out what that was, so he decided to ignore it and helped her. After she finished the final question, she stretched herself. Sitting in a chair for hours isn't the best thing for you.

"Alejandro, can I ask you something?

"Go ahead"

"Do you mind if I called you Alex?" Alejandro was busy on his phone when she asked, responded to her in a robot like way. The answer had caught her off guard.

"Only If I can call you Lex." His eyes widened and his cheeks received a second dose of pink for the second time in the past hour. Alexis mouth was open slightly, before she smiled warmly as Alejandro suddenly found the table very interesting. She wanted to hear him say that again, so he asked him to repeat. Naturally he tried to cover it up, but failed miserably.

"I said 'Sure you can call me Alex'." Alexis just smirked as he kept trying to bury it. And failing spectacularly.

"I'm pretty sure you said something else" He denied that

"Nope, that's what I said"

"Come onnnnn, don't lie to meee" She made a puppy dog like face for added strength. Despite living with Yang and Ruby before, he hadn't worked on his immunity for that. He groaned again as he threw his head on the table in defeat.

"Can I call you 'Lex?."

"Come on, speak up. I can't hear you with your face on the table and hands around your head" He lifted his head and avoided eye contact and repeated it slower.

"I said, only if I can call you 'Lex'" She smiled again.

"See was that so hard" he glared at her as he answered.

"It wasn't exactly easy either." She just rolled her eyes.

"Sure Alex, you can call me 'Lex'." After that, they both said nothing and just sat in silence. About ten minutes of awkward silence passed, before Alexis the broke the awkward silence as she checked her scroll. "Crap, we should get back to the dorm." Alejandro didn't believe her at first, not knowing how late it really was.

"It's not that late…Is it?" He checked his watch and his eyes widened a bit. "Well, I stand corrected." They both grabbed their belongings and begin the trek to their dorm. About ten minutes later they were back at the dorm, Weiss had just stepped out of the bathroom, and Ruby had just climbed up the bed, both in their nightwear. They both noticed that Blake and Yang were already asleep. Weiss gave them a small smile as Ruby gave them both a bob of the head, in a sort of "What up" type of way. Ruby then covered herself in her sheets and instantly fell asleep. Alexis whispered to Alejandro as he got her stuff for bed.

"I'm going to go get changed." He just gave her a small nod and thumbs up. When the door closed, Weiss made her way to Alejandro. She took a breath as she asked him a question.

"Alejandro?" He turned to her, raising an eyebrow. She continued "Can we talk tomorrow? In private?" This time, she received a vocal answer

"Sure, how about after our last class?" She nodded "Alright." She gave him a small smile.

"Thanks…Alex." That stopped what he was doing, she never called him that back at Atlas. He responded with a small smile and nod along with a thumbs up, and she went to bed. After, he got his sleep wear in a small pile and got ready for bed himself.


	6. Chapter 6

Alex sat straight up suddenly as he woke up. He looked around, noticing that everyone was asleep.

'Damn, that dream was mental. Never watching anything like that and eating chips before falling asleep.' He checked the time on his scroll, groaning as it displayed the time.

'Damn, its 7:15. No point in going back to bed now. He said, that dream having shook him up.

Opening the bathroom door and looking at his teammates, everyone was still sleeping. Quietly, he went to the closet to get his uniform. On the way, he dropped his scroll back on the charger as he grabbed his uniform from the closet. On the way back, he noticed that Blake was shifting slightly in her bed, but didn't think much of it. Once he got back to the bathroom, and was about to close the door, she whimpered slightly, but he still heard her. Whimpering slightly louder, Alejandro decided to wake her up. He gently pushed on her shoulder.

"Blake" he whispered "Wake up"

She said something, but he didn't catch it. She said it again, and this time was audible

"Adam, Please. Please don't do this" Adam? Who was Adam?

"Blake, its ok. He isn't here." He shook her with a bit more force.

"Adam, NO!" She woke up, startling Alejandro a bit.

"Blake?" She looked at him, her eyes showing the fear of her nightmare. "Are you ok?"

"…Yes"

"…"

"…"

"You just woke up from a nightmare…I don't think you're doing that well." She sighed.

"Look, I appreciate the concern. It was just a nightmare."

"Alright, if you say so."

"Why are you up at this hour? Isn't it a bit early to get ready?" He froze in his tracks. Blake had a point, but he wasn't going to concede.

"I happened to wake up and couldn't fall back to sleep" She obviously didn't buy it, but the tone to it told her to drop the subject. He hopped into the shower, doing what is usually done in the shower, such as shampooing, lather rinse and repeat, before drying himself off and getting dressed. Blake walked into the bathroom withe her stuff. Ruby slowly began coming to and noticed the brunette already awake.

"Alex?" She yawned before she continued. "What are you doing up early?"

"I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep." Ruby, still tired just nodded her hear before she tried to climb down. He helped her down or she would have most likely fallen flat on her face. "Thanks"

"No problem. By the way, Blake is in the bathroom." She nodded sleepily. He browsed the news on his laptop, knowing that streaming anything at this hour was just kids show or some old people infotainment. One thing got his attention and if he was still tired, this had woken up immediately. On the Sports and Entertainment Programming Network SEPN, more specifically SEPN Deportes, the guide showed Breaking News but not much else. Interested, he pressed on the channel in the guide and it began to stream to the tablet. What was on screen, plus what the group of four people were saying in Mistralan shocked him.

On Screen: "Joseph Platinihas stepped down as President of the IHA[1]"

First Pundit: "For those of you joining we just now, let us get you up to speed. Joseph Platini, the Man who WAS head of the International Hunters Association of Remnant has stepped down just four days after he was elected into his fifth term on Friday. Both the Atlesian and Mistralan Governments have warrants to extradite the 14 members of the IHA who were charged with wire fraud, racketeering, and money laundering. One of them was the President of Hunters Union of Vytal and Patch, who was also the Vice President of the IHA at the time of his arrest. Another huge arrest was made when the former CEO of then PNC, Sabina Rodriquez, was found to have accepted bribes of at least Two Hundred Million Lien in the form of kickbacks, tax incentives, and cash in order to convince the Atlesian government to hold the 'Vytal Tournament Aniversario Centenario' outside the Kingdom of Vytal. That Tournament was scheduled to happen next year, after this year's Vytal Tournament. Qualifying would start about eight months before instead of six and would be the largest Tournament thus far. The Venue would be the PNC Arena of Atlas, which is still under construction as of now.

Third Pundit: "The question that we are asking each other, as well as everyone is asking, is will this tournament be canceled? The current CEO, whose name we don't even know, hasn't said anything about this. The PNC, which is now the PNA, despite its change in leadership, needs to answer for this. All we know is that relationship between the current head of the company, and the former CEO Ms. Rodriquez has been so bad that she told VNN and AMV News that "Whoever is in charge is not fit to lead a large company like this. I know for a fact that I was the only person that can lead it. The Schnee Dust Corporation not only needs Competition, but we also need to find a cheaper alternative to Dust"

Second Pundit: "That old bat doesn't know what she is talking about. Yes an alternative to dust is always nice as an option for the people. Especially given that it's cheaper, but Dust is at its lowest price in years. And it's still going down."

Alejandro was too busy watching to notice that the rest of the team had gotten up. Once he paused the stream he saw that Yang was rubbing her eyes, Weiss was sitting up, and Alexis was wrapped in her sheets trying to get more sleep.

"Yo Alex! No 'Good Morning'?" He rolled his eyes

"Good morning Yang. Sleep Well?" She nodded, sleep still in her eyes. "Atleast Ruby didn't use the whistle."

"That's true. Hold up, how long have you been up?"

"What time is it?" He checked his watch. 7:45. "About forty five minutes to an hour"

"Why? I thought that you of all people would still be asleep."

"I woke up and couldn't fall back to sleep"

"Really, you of all people would be the person to win the 'Person who would sleep through anything' award." Before he could retort, Alexis unrolled herself from her blanket burrito.

"Mornin' peoples"

"Morning Blondie."

"Good Morning Alexis"

"Morning Lex" Weiss looked at Alex quizzically before shrugging. Yang on the other hand decided to tease him.

"Lex? You two have little nicknames for each other?! How adorable!" Alex and Alexis received a swift dose of pink on both their cheeks.

"Sod off Yang" Yang was having way too much fun to stop.

"Alex and Lex sitting in a tree-"

"Yang." Blake warned.

Yang stopped and puffed out her cheeks at Blake."Oh boo, your no fun."

Blake simply shrugged, a small smile gracing her features but hidden behind a book.

Alexis meanwhile was talking with Alex "Do you want to the library again? I mean we don't have to if you don't want to. It's just that we actually got work done and we had a bit of fun and-"

"Slow down, of course I'll go." Alexis smiled a little. She suddenly noticed how his uniform fit on him, how the shirt molded to the shape of his arms and felt that pressure again. She had lost track of how long she was staring.

"Lex, You alright?" She snapped out of it and answered

"I'm fine, just thinking." He raised an eyebrow before lowering it and smiling

"Don't think too hard, it's too early for that." She laughed a little. That got Ruby and Yang away from their argument and teased the two in front of them.

"Aww, Alex is flirting!" that caused Ruby to squeal in glee, Alexis to blush furiously and Alex looked at Yang in confusion. He's never heard that before.

"Uh...what?" Yang's jaw dropped as Blake peeked from her book

"You don't know….what flirting is?" a shake of his head confirmed. "It's when one person-oof!" Alexis's pillow ended Yang's sentence.

"Alright, Alright Sheesh… Gotta be so frisky. Alex, control your gir-" Alexis lunged at her trying to smother her with the pillow. Alexis through gritted teeth whispered to Yang

"God damn it Yang, can't you shut it for more than ten seconds?" As that happened Alex, who was still confused, shrugged before resuming the paused stream. Hopefully, getting more information on the ongoing development.

Fourth Pundit: Rumor has it that the CEO of PNA goes to Beacon academy. If that's true, it would just be a matter cross checking records and getting him to answer about this. This is a good day not only for those who enjoy the sport of Grifball, but also those who watch and attend the Vytal Festival. This could fix the years' worth of corruption done to both Sports.

First Pundit: "Alright, let's take some callers to get their opinion on the subject."

He decided that was enough and closed the Streaming Application. Weiss had gotten out of the bathroom and Alexis jumped to grab her things and get to the bathroom, locking the door behind her. Weiss noticed that Yang was on the floor, and just shrugged her arms before making her bed. A couple of minutes later, Alexis came out and Yang walked in.

* * *

After everyone had finished up, they all went to get something to eat. When they got there, they noticed that Team JNPR was already sitting at the table. Ruby waved at them and they all waved back, with Nora making a huge scene and Ren trying to sit her back down. Once Team RWBY had gotten there food and sat down, Nora began to tell some ludicrous story.

"So! There we were, in the middle of the night..." Ren corrects her.

"It was day." She looks at Blake, who is reading, and Yang who is listening intently.

"We were surrounded by Ursai..."

"They were Beowolves."

"Dozens of them!" she screams this as she stands at the table. Weiss is ignoring Nora and filing her nails, Ruby, Pyrrha and Alexis are listening politely, Alejandro is on his scroll and half listening, and Jaune is messing with his food.

"Two of 'em."

"But they were no match... And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!" Ren just sighs.

"She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now."

As the two teams continue to listen to Nora, their attention is grabbed when they hear someone yelp in pain. Not too far from where they are Team CRDL decided to pick on a rabbit Faunus, pulling on her ears.

"Ow! That hurts! Please, stop..." The one pulling laughs at her pain

"I told you it was real!" Then someone with a shaved head and Mohawk spoke

"What a freak!" as both RWBY and JNPR watched, Pyrrah spoke

"Atrocious. I can't stand people like him." Blake added to her comment

"Your not the only one..." Alexis nodded towards the group. Alex, who was the last to get his food, had approached the group harassing the rabbit faunus.

"What seems to be the problem here?" Cardin and the person next to him turn to face the brunette.

"Look who we have here! It's the CEO, the Boss Man, the rich boy!"

"Yeah, Yeah. But you still haven't answered my question."

The Rabbit Faunus was still in Cardin's grasp, and he tugged harder. That made her yelp in pain again."Well Boss Man you see, she's a Faunus. And Faunus are scum, trash. They are below us and everyone knows it. If you want, we could hold her while you pull her ears. Or do whatever you feel like." The Rabbit Faunus eyes widened in fear.

"I'll pass, in fact why don't you do me a solid and let her go?"

"Why would we to do that? We need to teach Faunus that they can't go around and expect nothing. They deserve this." Alejandro pinched the bridge of his nose?

"Look, just let her go alright? You of all people don't need to do jack." he retorted

Cardin scowled, didn't he run a company that experiments on them? "I would expect someone who runs a company that exploited Faunus labor would treat the scum of this planet exactly as such."

"Look you halfwit" at that, Cardin growled "You got me confused, most likely with the SDC. I treat Faunus workers with respect. Unfortunately, people like you are the reason we can't have peace."

"Oh so it's my fault that the White Fang attack humans and shit?"

"I never said that, don't get it twisted. But you aren't exactly being helpful with what you're doing. All you're doing is mistreating an innocent person because you believe that its the right thing to do."

"It is the right thing to do. You know what, why don't you go back to whatever place you came from and let the big boys handle this." They continued to harass the Faunus, pushing him out of the way.

Alex responded "Big Boys huh? All I see are four little boys who never got enough love from Mommy and Daddy." The entire cafeteria was stunned to silence. Team CRDL as a whole was fuming.

"Oh, I see that Boss Man has balls. Alright kid, you think you can take us on?" Instead of answering, he gestured at them.

"Alright kid, let's dance" Cardin threw a punch at him. He caught his forearm and twisted it against his back causing him to scream in pain. He then pushed Carding into the guy with a mohawk, causing both of them to crash into each other. As the CEO got back into fight stance, the other two just backed off slowly and picked up Cardin and the Mohawk guy, before making it to the exit.

Team RWBY and JNPR were surprised, they hadn't seen him fight before. Well, except for Ruby and Yang so they weren't very surprised. Alex proceeded to check on the Rabbit Faunus, making sure they hadn't done anything serious.

"Hey, you alright?" The Rabbit Faunus nodded meekly before talking.

"Y-Yes, thank you for the help. I couldn't stand them. They always treat me like this. Every morning or whenever I'm away from my team" He saw the beginning of tears start to form in her eyes, and tried his best to comfort her. "Shh, it's alright." He said, holding her a bit awkwardly.

Alexis was watching from the table with narrowed eyes, and felt a small pang of jealously as Alex hugging the Rabbit Faunus.

He asked about her team "Where is your team anyway? Don't you eat with them?" She shook her head before she explained

"My team doesn't eat in the morning. Fox likes to take a run in the morning, Yatsuhashi prefers to train, and Coco doesn't wake up until twenty minutes after First Period begins. Somehow she still is passing but I don't question it." He nods, understanding that she is on her own.

"I don't know about my friends, but if you want, you could sit and eat with us. Of course that call is on you." A smile began to form, no human besides her team has shown her any kindness of this caliber.

"Thank You, My Name is Velvet. Velvet Scarlatina"

"Alejandro. Alejandro Rojo. But everyone calls me Alex. Nice to meet you Velvet" He extend his hand for a handshake, which she accepted and he bowed after which made her giggle a little.

Meanwhile, the jealously was slowly starting to bubble up a bit more within Alexis, causing her nails to dig into the back of her scroll. Yang noticed this and whispered to her. "Alexis, that shade of green doesn't look good on you."

"What?" she looked at Yang, blushing almost as red as Ruby's cloak and placing her head on the desk. Yang decided to forgo teasing her and instead gave her some advice.

"He spends more time with you. Make sure you use it, otherwise..." She trailed off.

Alex had returned. Behind him was Velvet with her food. "Um, I know I should have asked, but do you guys mind if Velvet ate with us in the mornings?" Everyone agreed, except for Weiss who gave no answer as she was still filing her nails. Blake had noticed this the entire time, just watching her indifference at the situation.

The intercom announced the end of Breakfast, And Team RWBY and JNPR went to their respective classes.

* * *

Glynda Goodwitch. Sparring Class

Cardin has his mace perched on his shoulder while Jaune is on the opposite side of him with his weapon, Crocea Mors drawn, leaning on his weapon as if exhausted. They are both in spotlight shining on the Beacon Academy auditorium stage. He looks at Cardin, who laughs at his tiredness, and Jaune gathers his strength to charge forward and swing his blade at Cardin, only for him to jump out of the way. Jaune looks back, surprised, as Cardin's mace sends Jaune's shield - and himself - flying back. Armed with only with his sword, Jaune continued to try and attack, but is blocked by the mace's hilt. Their weapons locked, Cardin forces himself up, towering over him.

"This is the part where you lose."

"Over my dead-!"Jaune is cut short as Cardin knees him in the gut, causing him to drop his sword and fall to the ground in pain. Cardin raises his mace and is about to slam it down on a worried Jaune just when a buzzer rings, the lights come back on, and Glynda Goodwitch's voice causes him to stop.

"Cardin, that's enough!" he reluctantly relents and walks away as she comes onto the stage, tapping her tablet sized scroll "Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red. In an IHA sanctioned tournament-style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match." Jaune just lays on the floor in defeat and Pyrrha looks on sadly, Glynda turns her head to look at the losing warrior as he pulls out a smaller tablet with his low, blinking stats "Mr. Arc, please try to refer to your Scroll during combat. Gauging your Aura will help you decide when it's appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move to a more... defensive strategy. We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now, would we?" Cardin snorts quietly

"Speak for yourself..."

Glynda continues on to the seated and standing students, such as Yang, who is punching the air in anticipation, Weiss, shaking her fists with an excited smile, Ruby, shaking her entire body with enthusiastic energy while squealing softly, Alexis, with a smug smirk, and Alejandro, who has his arms crossed with smugness leaking in his smirk. "Remember everyone, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away! Qualifying will begin soon! It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing! Those who choose to compete and successfully qualify for the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale!" The bell rings, and students start leaving while Pyrrha continues to frown sadly. Jaune, still sitting on the floor, hangs his head in shame.

She had been walking around the halls for about half an hour now, looking for him. She couldn't grab him on the way out of their last class because Alexis had dragged him somewhere. But where? As she entered library she noticed a blonde, laughing as the brunette across the table was was balancing what looks like his scroll on his nose while juggling some wads of paper. As she approached, Alexis noticed her, but Weiss motioned to be quiet as he snuck up on an unsuspecting Alex.

"Lex, did you just feel the temperature drop like ten degrees?" Weiss just rolled her eyes

"No, but someone that could do that is behind you." Alex's eyes widened, he had forgot...'Well Shit.'

"Hey Weiss…"

"Hey Alejandro. Alexis, do you mind if I borrow him for a little bit." Alexis felt that pang of jealously return, but hid it behind a smile and nodded.

"Go ahead, I'll be here." Weiss thanked her as he dragged Alejandro out of the library.

As they walked out and in the hall, Weiss was trying to find a way to word what she was trying to say.

Alejandro spoke up first. "Alright Weiss, what do you want to talk about?" he had an idea of where she was going with this, but decided to not say anything.

She took a breath as she began. "I might have said some things to Ruby…Things that challenged her appointment as leader." He raised an eyebrow.

"What did you say to her?" he asked with a raised eyebrow

Weiss looks down, feeling something she hasn't felt in years. Guilt. "I may have possibly told her that she acts like a child. And that she hasn't earned her position as leader on the team…." She stopped there, hoping that he would believe that's all. Of course he knew there was more.

"And?"

"I may have said that Ozpin made a mistake."

"Weiss, that was a bit harsh. What brought that on anyway?"

Weiss remembered what Ruby had been doing, goofing off in Ports class. "Part of it was because she is so young, and that despite the fact that I was trained by the best of the best, I wasn't chosen to be leader of the Team. What she was doing in Professor Ports' class didn't help either."

He just looked at her, contemplating what to say. Obviously she needed to apologize, but she also needed to make amends with Ruby so that the team doesn't fall apart so early into the year. "You have to apologize to Ruby."

"I realize that, but I don't know how"

He raised an eyebrow…"Really, you don't know how to apologize?"

"It's not that I don't, it's the fact that I also want to make it up to her for what happened when we first got here." He raised another eyebrow. Weiss apparently had forgotten that he didn't arrive with everyone else at Beacon.

"What happened? Has it slipped you mind that I wasn't here when the rest of you were?"

Weiss raised her eyebrows in surprise, she indeed had forgotten that he came late. She explained the gist of it to him. "Basically Ruby, had crashed into me and I scolded her….for about 5 minutes. I guess a bit of fire dust got into her nose, and she sneezed. That caused a small explosion of Fire, Ice and Electricity." A

Alex just laughed at Ruby's' misfortune. That did sound like Ruby. "You know, I am honestly not surprised. I mean that is something Ruby would do eventually. "

Weiss chuckled a bit, but she still wanted to make it up to her. Besides the brunette boy, she hasn't had any friends. Now that she is at Beacon, she could turn around and maybe make some friends.

"So can you help?" She asked hopefully.

He shook his head. She has to do that on her own, helping her won't do much if this were to happen again. "You need to do this on your own. I mean, try to befriend her. Humor her with at least listening to her. Hell, maybe even talk to her. You never know, you too could have things in common and that could help as well. Helping her study is a start, just like Lex and I do." Weiss raised an eyebrow. 'Lex?'

"Lex?" He groaned again, is everyone going to be giving him flak?

"Is everyone going to be giving me crap about that? Damn."

Weiss just laughed a bit at him. "I won't do anything like what Ruby or Yang did, but I do think its sweet"

He just covered his face with his hands, trying to cover the smile forming on his face "Alright, enough about me. Have you thought about how you're going to make it up to Ruby?" She nodded, it was something simple. A small sign of friendship. But she would do it.

"Alright, is that all you need? Or is there something else you wanted?"

Weiss thought about it, but shook her head "No, that's it. Thanks for the help. I appreciate it"

He nodded before the eventually parted ways. As he walked to the library, he saw Pyrrah and Juane in the Sparring Arena, seeing Jaune getting his ass handed to him. Thinking nothing of it, he made his way to the library where he saw Alexis wearing a frown again. Though she was looking at her work instead of her scroll, she still didn't notice his presence. That is, until he scared her…..again.

"BOO!"

She screamed a bit clutching at her chest…again "What is with you and scaring me? What have I done to you?" She gave him a hard hit on the shouilder

"OW!Is me scaring you a justifiable cause for hitting me?"

"Yes"

"…"

"…"

"Of course it is, so what are you doing anyway?"

"This stupid packet that is difficult and hard and can you please help me?" fluttering her eyelashes for extra effect. He just rolled his eyes and began to help her. Not too long after, Alexis finished her work. As he got to work with his own packet of work, Alexis had decided to 'borrow' his scroll and played some game on it.

Eventually she got to a mission that she couldn't do and asked for some help in a sophisticated manner…"Alex!" she whined "I can't beat this mission, help me?" He stopped to look at what she was talking about.

"Just look up, and press the little grenade icon to throw one into the window. The building falls and you run the opposite way." he said, not even looking up from his work. She nodded and thanked him As she was doing that, he looked up and noticed how she had her tongue out slightly as she concentrated at the task at hand, before he snapped out of it as she completed her objective and did a small victory dance. He just smiled as he continued doing his work.

He eventually finished and noticed that Alexis was just looking at his scroll, examining it. She didn't notice him staring as she examined it.

"Alexis" She looked up "What are you doing?"

"I was just looking at your scroll, I noticed how it's different from mine" She took her scroll out and compared it to his scroll and started to point out the differences.

As Alexis compared the two, Alejandro had to explain that because he made both the scrolls for Beacon and his own, he could add or remove components in order to allow him to have a custom one. Of course, Alexis voiced her opinion of that…

"That's not fair! I want to have one that is unique too" She pouted, and Alejandro found that to be cute….

"Crap, its getting late. We should head back" She noted the time. He agreed and they made their way back. On the way, the accidentally brushed hands which caused Alexis to blush a little.

As she looked at him, he noticed his arms again, the muscles that could be seen from within the long-sleeve undershirt caused her to blush an even darker shade of pink. Thankfully they were almost at the dorm. Once they did get there, he decided to show off a little bit with his technology, and put his watch against the door. The contact made the door unlock itself, allowing both of them inside. Alexis just hit him playfully while she whispered to him, making sure not to be too loud to wake their sleeping teammates

"I'll be in the bathroom." He nodded as he dropped his scroll on the wireless charger, grabbing his nightwear. He proceeded to take off his watch and placed it on the small table.

He noticed that Weiss wasn't there and that Ruby was studying.

"Ruby?" She looked up at him "What are you doing and why are you doing it so late?"

"It's for the leadership class that I have to take. Speaking of that, Glynda wants you to take the class too, she gave me of your new schedule. It's next to your watch charging thingy on the table." She pointed to it as she explained. That didn't sound exciting and he showed his displeasure by groaning.

"Why do I have to do that? I thought it was for leaders or something." She just shrugged, but that meant that she wouldn't be alone in class at least. Besides Jaune there was no one in the class she knew or wanted to know. "When do I start?"

"Tomorrow, it's after our last class too. Thankfully it's only like an hour though."

"Great…Oh well, I guess that makes me a special snowflake too since only they get to be in the class, right?" She nodded and she whispered loudly

"Yeah, Go Team Special Snowflakes!"

"Do you need some help?" He nodded at the stack of papers.

"Nah, I got it. It's just there is a lot of it."

He looked at her with a raised brow."You just started it…Didn't you…"

"Noooooooo….Maybe?"

"You have to do it early so you can finish. Otherwise you'll be doing this at night all the time."

"It's just sooooooo boooooooooooring!" He just rolled his eyes.

"Just try to do it early, ask Weiss for some help. I'm sure she would help." Ruby grimaced as he mentioned Weiss. She still was a bit upset and hurt over what she said. He noticed her facial expression. "What's wrong?"

She just looked down. "It's just that I don't want her to yell at me or scold me or-"

"Ruby, calm down. I think she's over it…..I think."

Ruby snorted, answering reluctantly "Yeah, whatever. Thanks for the offer though."

"No Problem" at this point, Alexis had gotten out and was on her way to her bed.

"Good Night Alexis"

"Night Lex"

"Night Alex, Night Ruby" she then proceeded to unceremoniously flopped into her bed and wrapped herself in her sheets. He just looked on in surprise before shrugging and going to the bathroom.

"Well, I'm going to get ready and hit the sack."

"Alright" As she did her work, her mind wandered to Weiss. 'She was very mean, but if what he said is true, maybe I can befriend her. Who wouldn't want to befriend her? I mean she is smart, and fights well, and is pretty- wait...No I mean it... she is pretty. I mean she does look good, especially with her hair down...I mean yeah she's good looking, but I'm like one hundred and ninety nine percent sure she doesn't even like me, let alone swing that way.' As she had a mental argument with herself, Alex came out of the bathroom and closed the door, making his way to his own bed.

"Night Ruby"

"Night Alex."

* * *

Later...

The full moon shines over the green lights of Beacon, and in the room of team RWBY, the door opens and Weiss' shadow is seen against the hall's light. Blake is sleeping under the covers, Yang is spread out on her bed and snoring, Alexis is wrapped in her blankets like a burrito, Alejandro is sleeping face up under the covers with one hand on his chest, and when Weiss lifts the blanket that covers Ruby's bed, she finds the Ruby with her head resting on notes, a pencil in her hand, and open books all around her. Weiss, looking amazed at Ruby's determination, clears her throat and gently shakes the other girl awake, who takes a second to regain consciousness and start flailing in surprise.'

"Weiss! I-I was studying, and then I fell asleep! I'm sorry..." Weiss places a hand over Ruby's mouth and puts a finger to her own so Ruby understands to lower her voice. Weiss looks near Ruby's pillow and spots an empty Beacon coffee mug.

"How do you take your coffee?" This confused Ruby.

"I... I don't..." Weiss began to get irritated

"Answer the question!"

"Uhh, cream and five sugars!" Weiss sighs

"Don't move." she ducks under to her own bed and comes up a moment later with a fresh cup, offering it to Ruby. "Here."

This kind gesture surprises Ruby, but she takes it."Um... Thanks, Weiss."

Weiss smiles, then looks apologetically to Ruby

"Ruby, I think you have what it takes to be a good leader." Ruby smiles appreciatively before Weiss continues "Just know that I am going to be the best teammate you'll ever have!" They both share a smile "Good luck studying!" Weiss ducks under, only to come up and point at one of Ruby's papers "That's wrong, by the way." And ducks under again. When she speaks again, her voice comes from the doorway this time

"Hey, Ruby?"

"Uh-huh?" Weiss stands in the door with her hand on the knob, her back toward Ruby and she is facing the door, a small smile on her lips

"I always wanted bunk beds as a kid." And then she closes the door. Ruby, grinning at the progress with her new friend, goes back to her notes. Eventually, Weiss comes out and walks over to her bed.

"Goodnight Ruby" She smiles a bit, hearing a genuine 'Goodnight'.

"Goodnight Weiss" Ruby finishes her homework about ten minutes later before putting it in her bag. She looks at the corner, where Alex's bed is. 'Well, I guess you were right about her. Thank You.'

And Ruby went to bed with a smile.


	7. Chapter 7

It was Friday and none of them had homework, so some of team RWBY decided to walk around campus.

"Yang, can we go buy the TV now? I want to play some games!" Yang shook her head as she walked along. Blake was somewhere, Weiss was studying, Alexis and Alejandro are behind them and Ruby was next to Yang.

"It's Alex's fault! If he hadn't put his bed in that spot, I would have bought the TV already and mounted it. But Mr. Afraid-Of-Heights here didn't want to do that.

"Yang, just because you're OK with crushing Blake once those books give out doesn't mean that I'm ok with being crushed by Alexis bed if whatever support beams we used gave out. Or Vice Versa." Yang smirked, an opening has arisen for some teasing and bad jokes!

"Of course you wouldn't mind being crushed by Alexis, I mean she would be on top-oof" Alexis, with a face that rivaled Ruby's cape, hit Yang in the stomach and downed her instantly. "What the hell was that for?"

"Why do you always have to be perverted?"

"Alexis, I know why you're acting like this." Alexis raised an raised eyebrow "It's because you want your men, like you want books….thick and bound in leather" Yang started laughing so hard she was on the verge of tears, Alex and Ruby were just confused, and Alexis looked like she was about to murder someone to death, revive them, then murder them again. She grabbed Yang, who was done laughing and getting up, and put her into a headlock. Through gritted teeth, she addressed the both of them

"Ruby, Alex, Mind if I borrow Yang? I am going to have a serious" she tighten her grip even more "conversation with Yang about very, very naughty and overall terrible puns, okay?"

"HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME! ALEX GET HER OFF OF ME!" He decided to humor Yang and began to walk towards the two. He had made it about half way there, before he froze. Alexis was giving a look that could kill, so deciding his life was far more important, he slowly backed away.

"Sorry Yang, this is out of my Jurisdiction." Yang stared wide eyed

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?! SHE'S YOUR PARTNER AND YOUR GIR-"Alexis had covered her mouth with her free hand. She winced as she felt Yang lick her palm.

"We'll be back, don't wait up!" As they moved away, Alexis yelled at Yang "STOP LICKING MY HAND DAMN IT!"

Alex and Ruby just stared ahead. Reminiscing on what had had unfolded, before looking at each other and began to walk back on the path they were on.

"As Yang would say 'Well, that was a thing.'"

"Yes, yes it was."

It was silent for a bit before he decided to speak up again, curious about the situation with Weiss and Ruby.

"So Ruby, how is the whole thing with you and Weiss? Does she still scold you for no reason?" Ruby blushed a little at the mention of Weiss, she had been helping her get her work done at a faster pace and in a more organized fashion. Also, she was able to get really close to Weiss…..Really close.

"It's going good, great actually! She helps me with my work and helps me organize it. She also is hanging out with me a lot more, talking a bit more and what not." Alejandro smiled, believing that she had turned Weiss into her friend. What he didn't know was about Ruby's preference… and her growing crush with Weiss. Ruby obviously knew this so she decided to ask about it, maybe he could even give pointers…If she makes it sound as if it was a random question out of the blue…Wow that was a tall order for her. She took a breath and went for it.

"Alex?" he turned his head, raising an eyebrow "What's your opinion on homosexuality?" He looked confused and that confused Ruby in return. Surely he knew what that is…Right? I mean he runs a big company for dust sake, he would at least have heard the term before! Her fears subsided when he answered.

"Isn't that when two people of the same gender like each other? Like, like-like?" She nodded in confirmation "I have no problem with that at all. They can choose who they want to be with and do whatever it is people in relationships do. I don't have any reason to hate on them anymore than I don't have a reason to hate Faunus." Ruby smiled on the outside, but on the inside she was squealing in glee! Before she went to Signal, she had discovered her preference and was afraid that he would be like other people, closed minded about this. She thanked every deity in existence that wasn't the case.

"I thought you would be like those people who are closed minded about that."

"Why would I be? Like I said, I have no reason to."

"Some people are just like that unfortunately."

"What you mean like Cardin and his team?" Ruby laughed as she remembered when he saved Velvet from CRDL.

"Yep, like them." He just shrugged. Though why she had asked out of the blue was beyond him, he just filed that under 'non-important'. They walked along in silence for a few more seconds before Ruby spoke again.

"Are you excited for the Vytal Tournament? Qualifying starts soon and we'll get people from other schools and then the tournament starts an-"

"Calm down Ruby. Yes it is exciting, though I want to know why students from other school try and qualify here." Ruby remembered what Yang had told her some time ago about the same thing.

"From what Yang told me, since Beacon is the "Host" Academy, we get more qualifying spots than any other Combat Academy. The transfer students can qualify in those slots. If some students from here failed to do so during our Qualifying Tournament, they can try and get into the Vytal Tournament by joining the transfer students when they begin to qualify."

"That still leaves the question, why here? Why not give the spots to the Academies instead of the hassle of bringing them here? Also, do we participate as a Team or individually?" Ruby tapped her chin in a thinking pose, remembering most of what Yang had said.

"We participate in a team, though I think that we might get the option to compete in the tournament either solo or in doubles." he nodded. "Anyway, we get a certain number of spots. I don't remember exactly how many. I forgot how many the Transfer students, since the academies don't want to extend their Qualifying Tournament because they are almost always behind Beacon in terms of how fast they are going in their studies. If they did, the others would probably not get the summer off"

"Wow…that's…actually really pathetic."

"Yup! That's why I wanted to go here! This is the best academy and we can go home during the holidays! It's a win-win!" He chuckled at Ruby's enthusiasm.

"Did Goodwitch ever tell us anything about our Qualifying Tournament?" Ruby looked at him deadpanned, she mentioned it during the Leaders Course Class!

"Did you not pay attention to her last week? She talked about it like three time!" Alex just scratched the top of his head sheepishly.

"Um, No?" She just looked at him while tsking a finger at him

"If you don't pay attention, you'll fail the class and Alexis will have your head." Alex just rolled his eyes, then remembered what she said on Monday.

* * *

The past Monday, in the Library.

"If you fail any course, I will personally cut your head off and use it as a Grifball, got it?!" She could be really scary when she wanted too.

* * *

He was pale white as he nodded frantically. Her face when back to a normal smile as they continued their work.

"Well…crap. Look I'll try but you playing around doesn't help"

"Oh no, don't pin this on me! You're the one who is always playing with your watch, swiping up and down" She mocked the way he looked doing that "I mean what can you possibly be doing on that small screen anyway?"

"Playing Flappy Nevermore..."

"…"

"..."

Ruby proceeds to hit him in the shoulder, causing him to yelp in pain. It should be mentioned a bruise has formed from the amount of times everyone on the team has punched it. Even Blake got a hit on it!

"What. The Hell. Is With. Everyone hitting my damn shoulder! It hurts!" Ruby just rolls her eyes

"Stop being such a baby about it. Man Up!"

"Easy for you to say, you don't have a five others who is constantly hit your shoulder for no discernible reason!"

"Whatever, back to the thing. Goodwitch said that we would be seeded into pots based on our grades. She didn't say how many people would be a group, and I don't know how many groups they'll be since I don't know how many people are in a group. She said that once we get closer to the Qualifiers, more information will be given."

"So basically, she just talked about how we got drawn into the groups? And you hit me because I missed that?"

"Maybe that'll make you pay attention."

"…"

"Anyway, how are things with you and Alexis? You two seem two seem to spend more time in the library than at the dorm." He shrugged, they didn't do much except talk and do work.

"We just do our work there, it's easier and a lot more spacious than in our dorm."

"Suuuuure, that's allll you do there." He just looked at her, confused. Ruby looked at Alex and saw the confusion

"Yeah, that's all we do." he continued talking with a raised eyebrow "What do you think we do at the library?" she suddenly felt awkward about the situation…'surely he can't be that dense...Right? I mean, he's seen the looks that Alexis has given him over the past weeks…He can't be that dense, right?!' Ruby tried and failed to explain it to him

"I mean, you two, and her-the way she-"she was abruptly cut off by Weiss.

"Ruby!" They both turn around and see Weiss, who doesn't seem to be in a good mood. "Where have you been? The test for Professor Port's Class is next week, and you need to study!"

"Aw, come one Weiss! That isn't until next Friday! Can't I enjoy the one weekday that I don't have homework?"

"Yes, AFTER you study. Now come on, the sooner you finish, the sooner you can enjoy the remainder of your day." She grabbed Ruby by her cape and dragged her

"NOOOOOOOO! Alex! Help!" He just looked at the scene that was unfolding before him. Weiss just waved at him as she continued to drag Ruby…who was literally kicking and screaming.

"…I have got to stop drinking so much damn Orange Beverage..." He continued walking, wondering what Blake was doing.

* * *

Team RWBY Dorm

"Weiss, we've been at this for hours! Come on, let's do something fun!" Weiss sighed, they had been at it for about three hours.

"Alright, I guess we could take a break. What do you want to do?"

"What time is it?" Weiss checked her scroll, noting that there was still some light out.

"Ten to five" Ruby's eyes widened as she came up with something.

"Why don't we all go to Vale? I heard that they started to setup the city for the festival." Weiss perked up at this.

"Really? Isn't a bit too early for them to start?" Ruby just shrugged. "I suppose we could go. Why don't you call them and tell them to meet us at the Airship platform?" Ruby just whined, that was too much work for her to do.

"Weeeeiiiiiiiiis! That so much work…Help me?" She looked at Ruby deadpanned. Too much work?

"Ruby, are you serious? 'That's so much work'….You literally just call them, or even text them saying 'meet us at the Airship platform'. Seriously, it isn't that much work." Ruby wasn't having any of that 'logic' nonsense so she did the most sensible thing she could do. Give Weiss the puppy dog eyes. Once she saw them, she knew that was it. She just sighed in defeat. "Alright, I'll tell Alejandro and Blake, you tell Blonde and Blondie." Ruby just shook her head, she wanted to tell Alex.

"Nope, I'm calling Alex!" Weiss began to rub her temples, feeling the migraine that would inevitably form. She just conceded defeat.

"Fine, I'll call Alexis and Blake then…."

* * *

Library

Blake was in a chair, reading her book "Ninja's of Love" with the cover swapped in order to make it Inconspicuous. She felt her scroll begin to vibrate. Taking it out, she saw Weiss picture on the screen.

"Hello Weiss."

"Hello Blake. Listen, Ruby wants to go to Vale and wanted to see if you wanted to join us." Blake paused for a second. The book was getting to the super "steamy" part, but she wanted to read it in a more…secluded area…later.

"Ok, where do you want me to meet you guys at?"

"The Airship platform in about ten minutes."

"Alright, I'll see you then." Weiss just hung up.

Sighing, Blake put the book in her bag before making her way to the dorm to drop the bag off. Once, she got to the dorm, she noticed it was empty. Most likely they had started to make their way to the platform. Though something had caught her eye. It was the faint glow of something on the dresser.

Walking towards the source, she saw that it was just Alejandro's laptop. The display was apparently on. She opened it up, glacning around the display.

"Hm" the screen bypass the unlock screen and saw some raw sketches. The sketches seemed to resemble a type of weapon and had writing all around it.

* * *

The PNA™ Corporation: Project Prometheus

Underneath it was a small box of text. With a description that said the following:

"This is a rough sketch for the new PROJECT PROMETHEUS PLATFORM, the successor of the BLACK LUSTER SOLDIER WEAPON PLATFORM. This platform is designed to be more compact and as energy efficient as possible. At the moment the weapon is to be based off of the Rorsh R3 pre-production model."

* * *

She skimmed through the blurb, curiosity getting the better of her as she read another paragraph from a different 'Project'. And this one got her attention.

* * *

The current state of the PNC MKULTRA Program

"The MKULTRA program was designed by former Head of the Protection iNitiative Coalition Company [PNC]. The idea was to test the weapons being produced at Defensive HQ in Northern Atlas.

Faunus were to be recruited, under the guise of opportunities of employment, falsifying documents to prove those untrue promises, and ultimately use them to test weapons manufactured. They would then be placed in 'Pre-Great War' Style Concentration and Containment camps. They would be fed morsels, and would be rounded up in order to test out different types of ammunition and weaponry. Slugs, GasX and Element 115 were just some of the things tested. Several more experiments were conducted but are too strong to actually describe.

Currently there are at least 5 other MKULTRA testing sites active on Remnant that have not ceased operations after the Acquisition and are actively being searched for to be-

* * *

Blake stopped reading, not being able to continue. She was not happy, she was fuming! Experimentation?! He was using faunus to test out weapons and basically torturing them! Of all the things! What agitated her is that he had saved Velvet from Team CRDL, claiming he wasn't Racist. Yet he was doing this! He's a hypocrite and a liar! Turning off the screen, she walked out with a scowl and her mood beyond ruined and his trust waning on a very thing line.

* * *

Hallways of Beacon.

"Alexis, I'm sorry! "

"Why do you have to do that Yang?"

"It's in my nature, just ask Alex."

"Look, just please, tone it down a little."

"I promise nothing."

"…"

"…"

Suddenly, Yang's scroll began to play a snippet of an achieve men song. She saw the Caller ID Picture was Ruby and answered.

"Yo Rubes, what's up?"

"Hey Yang! Me and Weiss are going to Vale and was wondering if you wanted to join." She looked at Alexis, who mouthed, 'What?"

"One Sec." talking to Alexis "Ruby and Weiss are going to Vale, you wanna come with?" She nodded and Yang told Ruby" Sure, could Alexis come to?"

"Sure, Weiss was actually going to call her, but I'll let her know now."

"Alright, were do we meet up at?"

"Meet us at the Airship Platform in front"

"Alright Rubes, C'ya then."

"Bye Yang!" The call ended and Yang told Alexis where they were going.

"They want to meet at the Airship Platform in front" Alexis nodded and they went on their way.

* * *

Beacon's Weapon Repair and Manufacturing workshop.

'Whoa, this place is huge' looking around, Alejandro saw that the workshop had everything. Ranging from Raw Dust, which was somewhat rare, to basic screwdrivers and everything in-between.

'I could modify my weapon extensively here, even re-manufacture it.' Ideas began to pop into his head one by one. Looking at his watch, he saw a vision. Perfect… His thoughts were interrupted as his scroll began to play a short tune. Checking the screen on his watch, The Caller ID Image was Ruby. He pulled out his scroll and answered.

"Ruby, what's up? Is Weiss using 'logic' again?"

"Haha, very funny. I was actually calling you because we are all going to Vale. And I wanted to see if you would like to join us."

"Sure, were should I go?" She told him to meet up were everyone else was going to be. "Alright, I'll see you there then.

"Alright, Bye!"

"Goodbye" She hung up and he just looked at his watch again, with his mind going a bit overboard with idea's... Eventually, he started the trek to the Platform.

* * *

Airship Platform

Everyone had made it, with Blake and Alex being the last ones to get on once they both got there. He greeted Blake as they looked for their teammates.

"Hey Blake."

"Hello, Alejandro" That caught him off guard. The tone of her voice was a lot harsher than he expected.

"Uh Blake, are you alright? I don't mean to pry, but you do seem somewhat…Pissed."

"It's nothing" she spat "Just something ruined my mood for the evening." Her voice was still harsh as she talked to him. Not wanting to agitate her further, he just nodded. Once they found the rest of their team, they took their seats next to them. Blake sat next to Yang, With Weiss sitting in-between Yang and Ruby. Alexis and Alex were sitting on the opposite side and were facing them. They heard the Pilot speak through the intercom, mentioning the destination and the time it would take to get there.

* * *

Vale Platform

The airship started to descend and Weiss woke Ruby up. She had fallen asleep on the way there and used Yang as a pillow. She also had fallen asleep with her head on top of Ruby's. Weiss shook Ruby which made her jump, hitting her head on Yang's jaw and waking her up as well.

"Ow, Ruby! What was that for?"

"It's not my fault! Weiss was the one who woke me up!" Yang glared at Weiss, who rolled her eyes in response.

"Look, the doors are about to open, so would you kindly just get up?" Yang huffed as she got up and froze. The sight in front catching her attention. It was hilariously adorable!

In front of her, the brunette CEO had fallen asleep with his head facing the windows. Meanwhile, Alexis was also asleep while clutching his arm, nuzzling a little into it and sighing in content. Yang had pulled out her scroll and took some very close and overall good quality photos of them. Once she had her fill, she woke up Alexis.

"Blondie, we're here. Wake up." She groaned, clutching his arm a little more before opening her eyes. Once her vision was clear, she saw Yang with a very, very wide grin. It was then that it hit her like a freight liner, and she looked at what she was holding. Her face turned redder than Ruby's cloak faster than her semblance and Yang burst out laughing.

"It's not funny!" That caused Yang to clutch her sides, this was hilarious!

"Oh…dust…calm down….I can't breathe!" All the commotion had woken Alex up from his little nap. Yawning and stretching, he felt something gripping his arm. Alexis still hadn't let go and she hadn't realized.

"What's going on? Are we here?" She looked to Yang, who was holding her sides and laughing her face off. He looked to his right and saw Alexis, who was rad faced and fuming.

"Um, Lex? Mind letting go?" Her face turned even redder as she let go, hiding her face in between her hands and apologizing.

"Sorry Alex."

"It's Alright" He stretched once he stood up, cracking his back and knuckles. She looked down at Yang who was getting up "What's with her?"

"Nothing…Nothing at all"

"Alex, you are going to laugh once you hear this! Alexis had-"She was abruptly cut off by a hand covering her mouth

"It was nothing, she saw someone trip" She felt Yang lick her hand again and winced…again with this?

He just looked at the two blondes, confused. "Um, Ok then…" He shrugged and proceeded to walk towards the rest of the group. Alexis glared at Yang as she removed her hand from her mouth.

"Two things Yang…First of all, ew." She wiped her hand on Yang "Second of all, why do you have to do that?" Yang groaned. Is she dense?

"Alexis, I'm trying to help you out here. With him, you need to be a subliminal as a boot to the face." Alexis rolled her eyes, he isn't that dense….Is he?

"Yang, I'm sure you mean well. But really, I'm pretty sure you're just exaggerating. I can handle this. OK?" Yang rolled her eyes

"I know you can't, but I want to see this train wreck happen." Alexis rolled her eyes again and walked to join the group, with Yang not too far behind.

Once they got off the Airship, and left the station, they saw signs being put up by an elderly shop keeper. In red letters, the sign said "WELCOME TO VALE!" Weiss was the first to speak, raising her arms in amazement as she spoke

"The Vytal Festival! Oh, this is absolutely wonderful!" She was smiling brightly as she said that, something that Ruby had never seen before.

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much, Weiss, its kinda weirding me out..." She turned to Ruby, hiding the effect of the insult behind a smile.

"How could you not smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances! Parades! The tournament! Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking!" Yang decided to say something at this point

"You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring."

"Quiet, you!"

They keep walking and stop near the docks, sounds of foghorns are heard. Yang covers her nose as the smell of fish hits them.

"Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks?"

"Ugh, they smell like fish!"

Alexis voiced her displeasure "Yeah, I didn't come to smell the fish."

Alex just complained "I hate seafood."

Weiss acknowledged all of their complaints with a logical explination..."I've heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. And as one of the representatives of Beacon, the other being Alejandro, I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom!"

He just looked at her as if she lost her mind. Pulling his head back slightly in protest. "The hell you mean representative? I'm not going to do anything of the sort." Weiss raised an eyebrow. He was challenging her authority…Weiss Schnee's Authority. No, she wasn't going to have any of that. She simply grabbed his arm and began to drag him away from the group. Alexis and Yang just laughed at him as he struggled to get out of Weiss grip. Ruby looked on at him apologetically, and Blake was stoic, not caring about what happened to him.

"Weiss! Let go! I am not going to greet anyone! HOW ARE YOU EVEN THIS STRONG?!"

Blake knew what Weiss really wanted to do though. "She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament."

Weiss stops and lets go of the boy, scoffing at her accusation. "You can't prove that!"

"Whoa." the team looks where Ruby was looking at. A shattered window down the street and a door full of yellow caution tape of the Vale Police Force before walking over to the detective in front writing on his pad. Ruby asked "What happened here?"

"Robbery. Fifth Dust shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle."

"That's terrible." His partner looked at the register, it still had the money.

"They left all the money again."

Ruby was confused. "Huh?"

"Yeah, just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much Dust?"

"I don't know, an army?"

"You thinking the White Fang?" His partner just took of his glasses

"Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough."

Weiss crossed her arms and pointed her nose in the air with her eyes closed "Hmm! The White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates!"

Blake, who was already in a foul mood, stood up for them. "What's your problem?"

"My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane."Weiss responded

Blake scoffed and crossed her arms. "The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're just a collection of misguided Faunus."

Weiss looked at Blake in shock. "Misguided? They want to wipe Humanity off the face of the planet!"

"So then they're very misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale!"

Ruby decided to intervene, hopefully to ease the tension "Hmm... Blake's got a point. Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago... Or that Alex fought some time ago as well. Maybe it was him."

Weiss ignored her went back to the argument at hand, how could Blake defend them is beyond her. "That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum. Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."

Yang and Alex both spoke up at that. "That's not necessarily true..."

"Weiss, Yang has a point, you know that isn't true." Their attention turned to a sailor who was chasing someone on the docks.

"Hey, stop that Faunus!"

As the team overhears him, they rush over to investigate. A Faunus with a golden monkey tail is seen running down the length of the boat and leaping on to the edge as the two sailors are about to apprehend him. As he is running, he yells back at his pursuers.

"Thanks for the ride, guys! Haha!"

"You no-good stowaway!" The monkey Faunus looks in shock and grabs his chest. All this while peeling a banana and hanging by his tail

"Hey! A no-good stowaway would've been caught! I'm a great stowaway!"

"He technically has a point, he didn't get apprehended." Alex added while watching the said unfold. One of the detectives threw a rock at the Faunus to get his attention

"Hey! Get down from there this instant!"

The Faunus drops the banana peel on the detective's face, who growls in return. The monkey-like Faunus twirls up to crouch on the lamppost, laughs in amusement, and proceeds to leap off and run away from the detectives. As he runs past Team RWBY, he winks at an astonished Blake in slow motion before time speeds up again and he continues to be chased by the officers. When that happened, Yang threw a glare at the Faunus, trying to make a move on Blake...

As he got farther and farther away before saying something to Weiss "Well, Weiss, you wanted to see the competition, and there it goes..."

Weiss holds up a finger and begins chasing him "Quick! We have to observe him!"

Weiss, Yang, Alexis, Alejandro and Ruby give chase. Blake was lost in her own train of thought after seeing Yang glare at the monkey faunus because he winked at her. She catches up with the team as they go round the next corner, but then Weiss bumps into someone and trips.

She looks up only to see Sun jump on to a building and disappear from her view. "No, he got away!"

Yang points strangely at the girl underneath her before speaking, "Uhh... Weiss?"

Weiss finally sees that she fell on a smiling girl, which startles the heiress and causes her to jump toward Ruby.

The girls is still down on the ground, smiling widely "Sal-u-ta-tions!" Ruby, creeped out a little, returns the greeting

"Um... hello."

Yang, who was also very creeped out asked "Are you... okay?"

"I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking."

The team looks at each other in bewilderment before Yang speaks up again "Do you... wanna get up?"

"Yes!" as she leaps back on her feet, the team steps back a little "My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Hi Penny. I'm Ruby."

"I'm Weiss."

"Blake."

"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" Blake hits her side "Oh, I'm Yang."

"My name is Alexis."

"Alejandro."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all!"

"You already said that." Weis said.

Penny paused before speaking again "So I did!"

Weiss apologizes as they walk away. "Well, sorry for running into you!"

Ruby waves as Alejandro gives her a two finger salute

"Alright mate, stay safe."

"Take care, friend!"

As they get far enough away from a startled Penny, Yang started up "She was... weird..."

Weiss didn't seem to care as she looked for the monkey Faunus. "Now, where did that Faunus riff-raff run off to?" Penny suddenly stood in front of a surprised Weiss, who jumped

"What did you call me?" Weiss looks back and forth in shock and Yang looks apologetic

"Oh, I'm really sorry, I definitely didn't think you heard me!"

"No, not you." She walks through the group and leans her head down to Ruby and Alex "You two!" Both Ruby and Alex were startled

"Me? I-I don't know. I, what I, um, uh..."

"Um….uhh" She pointed to Ruby first

"You called me 'friend'!" Then, she pointed to Alex "And you called me 'mate', which is a synonym for friend!" She looked back at Ruby "Am I really your friend?"

Ruby looked at Alex, who shrugged, then to her team, who were motioning to deny her as a 'friend' "Uuuum...Y-Yeah, sure! Why not?" Then Penny turned her attention to Alex, waiting for his answer

"And what about you?" his teammates kept motioning 'No'.

"Uhh…..I guess, why…not?" their teammates comically faint, but Penny looks overjoyed and laughs and talks to Ruby

"Sen-sational! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!" She looked towards the boy and pointed to him "Like him!" He just looked at her in a confused fashion.

"Wait, What?"

Ruby groans as she stands next to Weiss as she brushes herself off "Is this what it was like when you met me?"

"No, she seems far more coordinated."

Yang wanted to know why Penny was here, so she asked "So... what are you doing in Vale?"

"I'm here to fight in the tournament."

That surprised Weiss, her attire telling all. "Wait, you're fighting in the tournament?"

Penny salutes "I'm combat ready!"

"Forgive me, but you hardly look the part."

Blake just scoffsc"Says the girl wearing a dress…"

Weiss, annoyed retaliates "It's a combat skirt!" Ruby and Alexis speed over to either side of Weiss', both of them saying "Yeah!" Weiss holds out both her hands and they both low-five them.

Then, the realization hit her and grabbed Penny by the shoulder "Wait a minute, if you're here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey-tailed rapscallion?"

Penny just looked up, confusion running across her face "The who...?"Weiss holds up a poor drawing of the criminal-in-question.

Though before she could say anything, Alex interrupted her. "Weiss that is a terrible drawing."

Alexis also commented on it "2.2/10, must try harder"

Ignoring the comments, she asked Penny anyway "The filthy Faunus from the boat!"

"Why do you keep saying that?!"

"Huh?"

Blake walks over to Weiss, mood worsening by the second. "Stop calling him a rapscallion! Stop calling him a degenerate! He's a person!"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Weiss releases Penny and motions to objects around her "Would you like me to stop referring to the trash can as a trash can? Or this lamppost as a lamppost?""

"Stop it!"

"Stop what? He clearly broke the law. Give him time; he'll probably join up with those other Faunus in the White Fang!"

Blake growls at her, how can she make assumptions like that?! "You ignorant little brat!" Weiss looks offended, but when Blake walks away, she follows

"How dare you talk to me like that? I am your teammate!"

"You are a judgmental little girl."

"What in the world makes you say that?"

"The mere fact that you would sort that Faunus boy with a terrorist group solely based on his species makes you just as much of a scoundrel as you believe him to be!"

Yang slides up to Ruby, who is next to Alexis, looking uncomfortable "Um, I think we should probably go..."

Penny pops up behind Alejandro, smiling and startling both him and Alexis "Where are we going?"

"What the hell?!"

"Ahh! What the Fuck!?"

Neither Weiss nor Blake notice as they continue their own argument.

"So you admit it! The White Fang is just a radical group of terrorists!"

"That's not what I meant, and you know it!" They continue to argue when the team decide to walk back to the airship, losing Penny in the process. The return ride was eerily silent, but once they got back to the dorm, it started back up again.

"I don't understand why this is causing such a problem!"

"That is the problem!"

Weiss gets up from her bed "You realize you are defending an organization that hates Humanity, don't you? The Faunus of the White Fang are pure evil!"

Blake also gets on her feet as well "There's no such thing as pure evil! Why do you think they hate Humanity so much? It's because of people like Cardin, people like you, people like Alejandro, that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!" Everyone looked at her in surprise, then toward boy, whose face has a mix of shock and anger.

"People like me? What the hell did I do?"

"You left your laptop unplugged, so I plugged it back in and saw your latest designs for your company. And I read a little bit of the writing underneath"

His face went from shock to anger instantly. "How dare you snoop around MY private designs! I could have you arrested for that!" She just scoffed "Wait, what does that have to do anything with me being discriminatory?"

"I read the last sentence from the bottom, and how your company uses Faunus for experimentation." Yang, Ruby, and Alexis just stared at him. He was about to explain that part, but was interrupted by Weiss.

"Hello, forget him for a second, what do you mean people like me? I'm a victim!" Blake looks back at Weiss and they stare at each other down in silence. Weiss leans in close, speaking quietly "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the Faunus?" She walks and leans against the window "It's because they've been in war with my family for years. War, as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember. And ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear; board members executed. An entire train car full of Dust, stolen. And every day, my father would come home, furious. And that made for a very difficult childhood." Alex looked down, knowing about how "difficult" of a childhood Weiss had. Ruby went to comfort Weiss, she turned away and walked back to Blake.

"Weiss, I-"

"No! You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!"

That pushed Blake over the edge, and said something that she instantly regretted. "Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!"

Silence drops down onto the dorm. A surprised Weiss backs away slowly, and Blake realizes her mistake as she looks around at her teammates. "I... I..." she dashes out the door. The brunette boy runs after her as Ruby yells from the doorway to the hall

"Blake, Alex, wait! Come back!" Yang sits herself down, worried about Blake and Weiss just looks down. Alexis also takes a seat at her bed as Ruby comes back in.

Blake runs outside and arrives at a statue of an armored man with a sword and a hooded woman wielding an axe on an outcropping, staring at the Beowolf under the stone heroes in particular.

She closes her eyes and slowly lifts her arms up to her bow and pulls the string to release the bow from her hair. She wipes away a tear away as her Faunus ears are free from there prison. On the verge of crying, she becomes startled when she hears a voice behind her.

"I'm sure you'll kill me and leave me to die, but I will say this though, you look better without the bow on."

She turns around and looks up. Very pissed and upset at what she sees.

"What do you want?"

"Look, give me a chance to explain what you read in the technical notes, and in return you'll explain to me what that last comment you said was about."

"No! I know that all humans are liars! You're just like the rest of them! I had a little hope that you'll be the one who proves me wrong. The one that would show me otherwise. I even believed that when you saved Velvet from Cardin and his gang of idiots. I guess I was wrong." She began to walk away and was stopped by his arm grabbing hers.

"Blake, please listen. I don't know what you have been through, but you have to understand that not all humans are like that. I've known Weiss, and while she does harbor some hatred towards Faunus, that's what she's been drilled with from the start! Just-" he takes a breath before continuing "Just, let me explain myself at least. I won't force you to explain what that outburst was about, but you do deserve to know what you saw. I know you can't trust all humans, but let me at least try to gain yours…Please?"

* * *

Sunday Morning.

Ruby woke up, yawning in the process. She takes off her mask and looks over at Blake's empty bunk, then to Alex's bed, and groans sadly.

* * *

Sunday afternoon.

Ruby, Weiss, Alexis and Yang are walking through the empty streets of Val, looking for their missing teammates... Well Ruby, Alexis and Yang are. Weiss is just there because she was forced to. Ruby was the first to speak.

"They've been gone all weekend..."

Weiss rolls her eyes. "Blake's a big girl, I'm sure she can handle herself! Same thing with Alejandro, he can handle anything that is thrown his way. He'll be fine." In truth, the fact that he was talking to a former terrorist, possibly discussing important matters scared her. Not just for her safety, or her family's, but his own as well.

"Weiss, come on, she's one of our teammates. And so is he!"

"Is she? We all heard what she said!"

"Weiss..."

Yang defended her partner instantly "Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. Either way, she and Alex are missing, and we need to find them!"

"A member of the White Fang! Right underneath our noses!"

Alexis spoke up, sick of Weiss constant complaining. "Look Weiss, once we find them, Blake will explain herself I assure you. But complaining isn't going to solve anything."

Weiss just said nothing. Ruby voiced her worry about her missing teammates "I just hope they're okay..."

* * *

Elsewhere

Blake is sipping a cup of tea and sighing. She looks up at Alejandro, who take a sip of his Soft Drink as he reclines back in his chair, crossing his arms. He takes another sip as she puts her cup down before speaking

"So, you want to know more about me, huh?..."


	8. Chapter 8

Blake and Alejandro are sitting outside a small café. Blake is drinking some tea, while Alejandro bought a Dr. Fizzle. As they were outside, they just looked around at the people who were either walking around or shopping, Blake was lost in thought.

While they boarded an airship to Vale on Friday, neither of them said a word. With the exception of a little small talk here or there, nothing of any significance was said during the trip. She did watch curiously as Alejandro rubbed around where his watch is, possibly just chafing or something and thought nothing of it.

Since they had nowhere to go, Alejandro somewhat persuaded Blake to allow them to stay in a hotel, at least for the night. Somehow, she agreed to it and besides the fact that it was nice, she still kept an eye on him. The little trust she had in him, the little faith she had that humans weren't liars wasn't completely gone but it was being strained to its breaking point.

Saturday wasn't to exciting either. They had decided to at least lessen the tension with a little more small talk and him inviting her for some lunch and dinner at different restaurants, much to her displeasure. This was probably his plan, just act nice and BS your way out. Her time in the White Fang had hardened her to this.

A small hum from across the table brought her back to the present. He was humming a small tune to himself. It sounded like something she had heard before, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Eventually during dinner, she agreed to disclose a bit of her past in order for an explanation of the MKULTRA Project.

"So, you want to know more about me...And in return, you will explain yourself, yes?"

Alejandro had taken a sip of his drink with a bit of humor in his eyes. "Finally, she speaks! Nearly two days and despite my kind gestures, you gave me nothing but small talk and some weird looks!" Blake gave him a hard look before he continued "Yeah, just like that! But to answer your question, yes, yes I will"

Blake just rolled her eyes, despite the tension between the two, he could still try to sprinkle in some humor.

She was trying to find a way to explain what she was about to say to him in her head. A small part of her was afraid that he would turn her in, or make her flee Beacon. The reason she was enrolled at Beacon was to escape all this, yet here she is, with a CEO of a major corporation who has the power to track her down and prosecute her, and was about to talk about her not so innocent past with him. She took a breath and closed her eyes, before she opened them back up and looked at him sadly.

"Alejandro... Are you familiar with the White Fang?"

Alejandro looked at her with in surprise, surely this has nothing to do with this right? He decides not to pry too hard.

"Of course! I don't think there's a Faunus or Human on the planet who hasn't heard of them. I understand their cause, equality for Faunus. Equal pay for the same jobs humans have, Equal rights, Equal healthcare, hell even equal bathrooms! What I don't understand is the way they are running things. Surely, if you ask me, the way the White Fang is running things is the main reason discrimination has gotten worse over the past couple of years!"

Blake listened to what he was saying, skeptical of how he said what he said. She noticed howhe didn't use anything like "Animal" or any other slur.. He addressed the subject in a calm, collected, and somewhat rational fashion. As he finished, she decided that this was a good opportunity, so she took another breath and dropped the bombshell

"I was once a member of the White Fang."

Alejandro was sipping on his drink when she dropped that information, and began to choke on his drink, making him put it down and wipe his mouth as he holds up a hand to process this information. Making sure no one was listening, he spoke in a loud whisper. "Wait a minute, you were a member of the White Fang?!"

"That's right. I was a member for most of my life, actually. You could almost say I was born into it..." As she begins to tell her story, Alejandro tries his best to imagine it…

* * *

There are weapons plunged into the ground - swords, guns, any number of combinations.

"Back then, things were different. In the ashes of war, the White Fang was meant to be a symbol of peace and unity between Humans and the Faunus."

There is an audience, the dark outlines of two trios are shown on top of a podium - animal-eared and tailed Faunus on one side, regular Humans on the other - shaking hands and making does not last long, as seen when a Faunus cowers in fear at the aggressors harassing her. Later, more Faunus are pushing the crowd away from their abused brethren.

"Of course, despite being promised equality, Faunus were subjected to discrimination and hate. Humanity still thought of us as lesser beings. So, the White Fang rose up as the voice of our people. And I was there."

He imagined the silhouettes of Faunus protestors, and a young girl with dark hair and cat ears protesting alongside them.

"I was at the front of every rally. I took part in every boycott. I actually thought we were making a difference. But I was just a youthful optimist."

A blue flag of a white wolf with sad eyes and a circle behind its head is lowered, and raised in its stead is a red monster with three bloody scratches and teeth bared at the world.

"Then, five years ago, our leader stepped down, and a new one took his place. A new leader, with a new way of thinking."

He see's series of images - Faunus replacing their picket signs with axes and blades, windows being broken, thieves leaping on trains to steal their cargo.

"Suddenly, our peaceful protests were being replaced with organized attacks. We were setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacking cargo from companies that used Faunus labor. And the worst part was, it was working. We were being treated like equals. But not out of respect... out of fear."

* * *

"So, I left. I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid their violence. Instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress. So here I am. A criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little black bow." she wiggles her cat ears beneath the bow.

Alejandro was listening intently, absorbing the information she had just shared. "Right, you haven't told anyone about this right?"

Blake merely looks down in shame and shakes her head.

* * *

"Blaaaake!"

"Blaaaake!"

Ruby, Yang, Alexis, and Weiss walking through town and calling in vain for their missing teammates.

"Blaaaaaaaake! Where aaaare yoooouuuu!?"

"Aleeeeeeeeeeeex!"

"Alejandro! Olly olly oxen free!"

Ruby turned to Weiss, who is doing nothing proactive to help find their missing teammates. "Weiiiiss, you're not helping!"

Weiss just huffs and crossed her arms. She did not have to be doing this at all!

"Oh! You know what might be able to help? The police!"

Both Ruby and Alexis crossed their arms, with Alexis just shaking her head in her hand in frustration, and Ruby groaning at Weiss. "Ugh, Weiss..."

"It was just an idea!"

"Yeah, a bad one."

Yang walked next to Ruby and Alexis, and tried to get Weiss to give Blake a fair chance. "Weiss, I think we should hear her side of the story before we jump to any conclusions." Weiss wasn't in the mood for this.

"I think that when we hear it, you'll all realize I was right!"

Penny suddenly pops literally out of nowhere, scaring the group. "And I think Weiss' hair looks wonderful today!" Ruby screams in as she popped up

"Aaaah! Penny! Where did you come from!?"

Penny ignores the question cheerfully, before asking her own question. "Hey guys! What are you up to?"

Ruby was confused."Uhh..." Yang answered Penny, who was staring at her…

"We're looking for our friends, Blake and Alex." This confused Penny "Alex?" Yang clarified before she asked anymore questions. "Alejandro." That caught Penny's Attention.

"Ooooh, you mean the Faunus girl and her boyfriend!"

Ruby, Weiss, Alexis and Yang stare at Penny. Faunus? Boyfriend?! What?

"Penny, what do you mean ?" Alexis asked, trying not to sound panicked. Yang just chuckled at how Alexis ignored the very important part of what Penny just said.

"Isn't it obvious? The way they don't speak to each other, the look she give him when he moves, the look of hatred in her eyes as she speaks about him! It's romantic!" Alexis and Weiss blink before them both facepalmed…Really?

Ruby just side stepped that little…thing before asking about Blake.

"Wait, how did you know that?"

"Uhh, the cat ears?" Ruby nods, and Penny simply points to her head.

Yang laughs a little at Penny before the realization hits her. "What cat ears? She wears a... boooohhh..." That realization leaves them in silence as a tumbleweed blows through in the wind. Ruby was the first to break the silence

"She does like tuna a lot..."

"So, where is she?"

Ruby sighed as she answered Penny. "We don't know. They've been missing since Friday."

Penny gasped "That's terrible!" and approaches an uncomfortable Ruby "Well, don't you worry Ruby, my friend! I won't rest until we find your teammates!" Ruby does her best to continue smiling

"Uh, that's really nice of you, Penny, but we're okay! Really! Right, guys?"

She looks over Penny to direct her question at Yang, Alexis and Weiss, who's blinking outlines are all that's left of their sudden departure. A tumbleweed blows past them again.

"It sure is windy today!"

* * *

Alejandro and Blake are walking down a somewhat empty street. They are both talking about the robbery from Friday. "So, what's the plan now?"

Blake is contemplating about the dust robberies, hoping the White Fang didn't have anything to do with that. "I still don't believe the White Fang is behind the robberies. They've never needed that much Dust before."

Alejandro's eyes widen before he explains his theory to her "What if they do now?" he lifts his arms, trying to keep her calm as he continues to explain "I mean... the only way to prove that they didn't do it, is to go to the place where they would most likely go to if they were to do it, and not find them there! Right?" Blake nods in acknowledgement. She sees him beam a little, thinking that he did well for now. Unfortunately, she doesn't know where that 'place' is.

"The problem with that is that I have no idea where that would be." She turns to face him, as he smiles a little, taking out his scroll and waving it around her.

"Well, I do run a multi-billion Lien corporation, and the Schnee Dust Corporation is my main competitor, and I may have received some Intel on a huge shipment of Dust coming in from Atlas."

Blake's eyes widen at this information "How huge?"

"Huge. Big Schnee Company freighter. Millions of Lien worth of it."

"You're sure?"

He simply waved his scroll.

* * *

City of Vale

Yang stepsout of a shop with Weiss, waving to the person inside "Thanks anyways!" she sighs "This is hopeless." She looks to Weiss, who is looking around nonchalantly"You really don't care if we find her, do you?""

"Don't be stupid; of course I do. I'm just afraid of what she'll say when we find her." She walks ahead of Yang before calling out over her shoulder "The innocent never run, Yang!"

Yang just looks down in thought. Blake isn't the bad guy...

Right?

* * *

Meanwhile…

Both Penny and Ruby are walking around, with Penny asking Ruby questions about Blake and Alex. Not wanting to be rude, she answers them as best she can.

"So, Blake is your friend?"

Ruby sighs as they make their way down the sidewalk "Yes, Penny."

"But you're mad at her?"

Ruby answers and corrects her. "Yes. Well, I'm not. Weiss is."

"Is she friends with Blake?"

"Well, that's kind of up in the air right now..."

Penny is trying to grasp this, but can't "Why?"

Ruby sighs again, she is going to punish her team for deserting her with Penny "Well, you see, Blake might not be who we though she was..."

Penny's eyes widen as she gasps "Is she-" she looks to her left and right "-a man?"

"No! No, Penny. She's..." she stops and sighs, looking at Penny as she talks "I don't know what she is. She didn't exactly talk to us before she decided to run off."

Penny looked down at her"I don't have a lot of friends, but if I did, I would want them to talk to me about things."

Ruby turns her gaze downward sadly, wishing that Blake had talked to them at least."Me too"

* * *

Vale Dockyard.

Amidst the chirping of crickets and darkness of night, Blake lays flat on her stomach on the rooftop overlooking the shipment of Schnee Dust containers. Alejandro had went to the bathroom, but that was 10 minutes ago and Blake began to worry. She heard footsteps and turned to see him, along with some food, water, and gum.

"Did I miss anything?"

Blake looks up as at him as he drops down to her. "Not really. They've offloaded the crates from the boat. Now they're just sitting there."

"Fair Enough then." He holds out one of the bags of chips in his arms to her "I got you some food!"

Blake gives him a questioning look. Of all times to be hungry, he chose now? "Do you always think about food?"

"Weren't you in a cult or something?" she delivers an angry glare and punches him in the shoulder. "OW! Okay, too soon!"

Just as he says this, the winds blows all around them, they look up to see an Aircrafts's searchlights flashing around for a landing spot, descends in the middle of the cargo containers and extends a ramp for a black hooded individual with a metallic fanged mask to come out of.

"Oh no..."

Alejandro looked at her as he asked "Is that them?"

Blake stares at the bloody wolf on the back of the man's outfit as she answers him, hoping that it indeed wasn't them "Yes... It's them."

As White Fang Soldier walks out of the aircraft he motions to the other members with his rifles "All right, grab the tow cables!" Alejandro wasn't very surprised at the scene unfolding, but surely Blake would have known, right?

"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?"

Blake stared sadly at what she sees. "No. I think deep down I knew. I just didn't want to be right." she closes her eyes, only to open them suddenly when she hears a new voice. A man with orange hair, a top hat and a cane comes out of the airship, walking down the ramp gesturing wildly.

"Hey! What's the holdup? We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?" Alex recognized the man. He was the person who escaped from that robbery in Atlas a few months ago. Blake was shocked at the scene that develops before her. The White Fang would never work with any humans.

"This isn't right. The White Fang would never work with a Human. Especially not one like that." Blake stands up and unsheathes the katana of Gambol Shroud before walking off the edge of the roof. Alejandro, alarmed, called after her

"Hey, what are you doing?!"

Ignoring his call, Blake falls to the ground in a crouch, then continues on to hide behind one of the containers, peeking around the corner to see the Orange haired man berate a White Fang member holding a coil of rope.

"No, you idiot! This isn't a leash!"

"I-im sorry Mr. Roman sir!

That's Mr. Torchwick to you-" as he's looking around, Blake suddenly appears behind him with her blade at his throat "What the- Oh, for f-" he rolls his eyes when he's cut off by Blake mid-sentance

"Nobody move!" The White Fang soldiers ready their guns and equip their swords in response. Roman speaks to Blake, only agitating her further.

"Whoa! Take it easy there, little lady." As the White Fang closes in on her, Blake uses her free hand to go for her bow and remove it, causing the ribbon to fall away as her Faunus ears are shown to the world.

"Brothers of the White Fang! Why are you aiding this scum?" The White Fang members lower their weapons a little at this development, unsure of what to do, when he laughs.

"Oh, kid, didn't you get the memo?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together!"

Blake was furious, did The White Fang sell out? "Tell me what it is or I'll put an end to your little operation." Suddenly, the air is filled with more turbines blowing the wind wildly around the holdup. Roman looks up, seeing the second aircraft in the air.

"I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation..."

Two more aircraft are hovering above the heist, and as Blake watches in horror, Roman smiles and manages to fire his cane at Blake's feet, resulting in a large explosion.

Back in the city, Penny and Ruby turn around upon hearing the noise, seeing the smoke rise from the docking bay just a few buildings away.

"Oh, no..."

Blake, who was dazed but unhurt on the ground, quickly rolls and runs out of the way of Roman's continued attacks, flaming missiles destroying cargo behind her as she hides behind more containers.

"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty..." his taunt is interrupted when a small bag of mixed vegetables hits him on the head, causing him to look up and growl at the assailant. Alex jumps from the container above Roman and drops down on the criminal's head feet-first, causing Roman to fall. He falls into his fight stance, left arm forward and right arm near his face. The bezel on hiw watch begins to spin rapidly, changing colors as it does so.

"Oi! Leave her alone!"

The aircrafts open to let more White Fang members drop, standing by Roman as he gets up and they surround him and the brunette. Roman fixes his hat and looks towards him, remembering him from that Robbery. And how he single handedly foiled his "funding".

"Well, if it isn't the person who single handedly stopped me. You remember that, don't you?" He says nothing as Roman keeps going. "Alright then kid, prepare to meet your fate"

With that said, the White Fang charge at him, but he manages to dodge and get some cheap shots on the soldiers with some weak punches and kicks until he rolls out of the way.

The Ring on his watch begins to spin faster as it changes color fast, before the light begins to glow brighter. As that is happening, the top half lifts as the ring spins even faster, revealing the fragile circuitry and motherboard for a split second before it begins to extend and encompass his entire forearm. Gloves begin to manifest themselves around both his hands as the watch transforms into something resembling a gauntlet with a screen.

He begins to punch his attackers, each of them receiving an electrical shock the stuns them, before he finishes them off. He uses this tactic to beat down on each opponent that nears him, dropping most of them in a single blow, As three approach them, he gets into a little groove and begins to hit a combination of punches and kicks, along with small blasts of electricity that eventually creates an electrical shockwave to beat the last of them.

Blake peers around the corner of the container to watch Alex beat more Soldiers, causing one to fly over Roman's head, twitching as he loses consciousness. Torchwick growls in annoyance and aims his cane at him, firing a shot that he was able to block with some invisiable shield.

"He's mine!" Blake goes in close and becomes a blur of afterimages as she slashes both blades at Roman, who backs away and deflects each blow with his cane at unbelievable speeds. Blake continues to dash, hop over, and slide around Roman to try and find a weak spot, but as he barely deflected the attacks, he lands a few hits on Blake until one final beating with his cane causes her to go down.

Just as Roman deals with her, Alex appears right behind her and cracks his knuckles. That allowed a replica of the glove on his left hand to form on his right. He then swings at Roma.

Despite the combination of punches and kicks that he delivers, Roman manages to defend himself against every hit, until a second-long pause that allows Blake to get a slash in and knock him back.

On his back, Roman notices a container hanging by a crane right above the two, and gets up to fire his cane at its supports. Blake leaps behind it, but Alex dashes forward with a small burst of air coming out from the bottom of his shoes and barely misses when he boosted forward, ending up right below the nozzle of Roman's cane. Just as he's about to fire, Roman and Alejandro's attention are drawn to a familiar voice.

"Hey!" Ruby appears on the rooftop overlooking them, Crescent Rose extended and ready for action.

Roman loses interest in Alejandro and waves to Ruby "Well, hello, Red! Isn't it past your bedtime? Or are you hear to save your little boyfriendcover here?" As he finished, he grabs Alejandro by the collar and swings his cane, the force of the blow sending him back a little.

Penny approaches Ruby as she looks down at Roman "Ruby, are these people your friends?"

Ruby yells at Penny, warning her to watch out "Penny, get back!" While her attention is diverted to Penny, Roman snarls and aims for Ruby with his cane. Alex had gotten back up and saw where he was aiming, immediately dashing forwards as Roman fires his cane. He took the hit and was launched back, hitting a lamp post before falling to the ground. The lamp post collapses as the the gloves and arm guard evaporate and his watch reassembles itself as a watch again.

Roman blinks before he gives off a professional-level evil laugh at his redirected attack. Penny turns her head toward the criminal and gives him a first glare, walking forward while Ruby looks on in shock, and Alejandro tries to get back up.

"Penny, wait! Stop!" Ruby tries to stop her but she raises her hand and responds to Ruby

"Don't worry, Ruby. I'm combat ready!"

Her backpack opens up mechanically, and out comes a single sword that extends and multiplies into several blades hovering over Penny's back. Leaping from the rooftop with the weapons acting as wings, she sends three of her swords to knock two White Fang soldiers down before even landing on the ground, where she flings the swords at one soldier, impales another to a wall, creates a barrier of spinning steel against someone who runs towards her, leaps over a goon with her swords in tow, and finally making a wheel that she throws to knock multiple Faunus off their feet.

Alex observes the spectacle in amazement "Whoa! I have seen some shit today!" he gets up and keeps watching.

Three Aircraft come from the skies and open fire on the battle, but Penny merely forms a shield and launches two of her swords into the wall behind her, which in turn pulls hrt back with their strings. When her swords swirl around her again, she commands them to open their points and build up a large glowing ball of green light. With a punching action, several bright lasers crack the pavement when they fire at the transports and slice each one in half, causing several of the White Fang members inside to fall and letting Ruby watch as that particular Aircraft falls to pieces behind her.

Stunned, she turns back to Penny as she aims her swords at the remaining aircraft, holding the crate of Dust and pulls back on their wires, tugging the aircraft with them. Ruby and Alejandro are just watching in awe.

"Whoa... How is she doing that?"

Seeing the transport aircrafts flight fall under Penny's control, Roman grimaces and turns to run towards the last transport.

Penny, after her large pupils dilate for a second, pulls on the strings, and the aircraft crashes into a stack of crates, causing an explosion as a result.

Roman watches from the safety of his escape "These kids just keep getting weirder..." he uses his cane to close the doors, and the jet lifts off, flying away from the battle.

* * *

Aftermath

Later, a handful of police cars are at the docks, Ruby, Blake, and Penny are sitting on boxes in silence. Alex is also sitting down, running minor Diagnostics on his weapon. That is, until Weiss, Yang and Alexis appear. Ruby speaks quickly, trying to explain the situation

"Look Weiss, it's not what you think, she explained the whole thing. See, she doesn't actually have a bow, she has kitty ears and they're actually kind of cute..." Weiss silences her with a finger and goes up to Blake.

Blake calmly looks at her before trying to explain herself, only to be stopped. "Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with the-"

"Stop! Do you have any idea of how long we've been searching for you? Twelve hours. That means I've had twelve hours to think about this. And in that twelve hours, I've decided..."

Yang, Alexis, and Ruby look on, worried. Meanwhile, finishing his minor diagnostic, Alejandro just crosses his arm, with a smug smirk on his face as Weiss continues.

"I don't care."

Blake was surprised "You don't care?"

"You said you're not one of them anymore, right?"

"No, I-I haven't been since I was younger-"

Weiss silences her in a humorous, albeit childish fashion. "Ah-bah-bah-bah-bah! I don't want to hear it. All I want to know is that the next time something this big comes up... you'll come to ALL your teammates. And not just..." she looks at Alejandro behind her, with his smug smirk still intact, as she catches herself "one person."

Blake looks at Ruby, Alexis, and Yang all grinning at her, she wipes a tear from her eye, nodding "Of course."

Weiss smiles and nods. The moment is serious for a second more until Ruby screams, waving her arms wildly "Yeah! Team RWBY is back together!"

As the six gather with each other, she then points accusingly at Alejandro "And YOU!" That instantly wiped the smile from his face, and replaced it with a look of fear. "How dare you run off like that! Alexis and I were worried! Yang not so much. But still!" she received an indignant "Hey!" from Yang. He turns towards Alexis, and finds her with a look that could indeed kill him. He laughs nervously, whistling nonchalantly, and looking away. Ruby, meanwhile, looks around and notices someone missing.

"Hey, wait a minute... Where's Penny?"

* * *

From the darkened back seat of a limo, Penny watches the group of friends reuniting with each other.

"Penny, you should know better than to go running around in a strange city."

Penny lowers her head, sadly "I know, sir."

"Penny, don't worry, your time will come..."

* * *

Meanwhile, at Beacon, Ozpin is seen holding a scroll showing a "LIVE FEED" of Team RWBY at the docks. He closes the video and opens up a communication with Qrow, whose team name and other information is left blank and his only message is: "QUEEN HAS PAWNS."

"Hmmm..."

* * *

Roman walks into a large warehouse with a dark, shadowy interior. He goes over to a table and places down a case of mysterious contents, and sighs. The voice of a female garners his attention

"How very disappointing, Roman."

Roman turns around suddenly when he hears the voice and their noisy entrance. "Whoa! Cinder! Hehe... I wasn't expecting to see you guys so soon..."

Three figures walk up to Roman, one of which has yellow eyes and flowing dark hair "We were expecting... more from you."

Roman laughs a little before getting serious "Hey! You were the ones who suggested working with those stupid mutts from the White Fang."

"And you will continue to do so." She summons a fireball in her hand and steps out of the darkness with the other two in tow, a purple-haired man and a mint-haired, tanned woman. Cinder's eyes begin to glow gold "We have big plans for you, Roman. All we ask is... a little cooperation."


	9. Chapter 9

The Dock's

"Alright then, now that that's all cleared up, back to Beacon!" Ruby started on her way back before she was stopped by Weiss

"Ruby….it's this way" Ruby turned around, mumbling an apology as she walked the other way with her head down. Chatting amongst each other, with yelling occurring, soon they were at the Vale AirDock. While the other's got the tickets, Blake and Alejandro were just standing there. Blake just standing there and Alejandro was checking his watch for any damage that I may have occurred in the fight.

"Alejandro?" He looked up with raised eyebrow, wondering if he was in trouble. Weiss had yelled at him for about twenty minutes on the way, with Yang and Ruby lecturing him about running off and not contacting anyone. Alexis…She was fuming. She didn't say a word to him or even acknowledged his presence

"Yes? How may I help you?" Blake just rolled her eye, but couldn't hold back a small smile.

"You do realize you have to explain yourself, Right?" He just sighed, it's not that he wasn't going to anyway. He doesn't like to be reminded every time about the same thing over and over.

"Yes" He drawled. "Once we get back, I'll explain."

The rest of Team RWBY had comeback with them all having their tickets. Yang had bought Blake's ticket, claiming it was a "Peace offering". Blake had laughed at that. Alejandro had noticed that Yang was acting different around Blake. He just filed that under "should-ask-but-oh-well". Noticing that he still needed to buy his own, he made it to the terminal and tapped his scroll to the machine. Students at Beacon received free Transportation using the Airships with a tap of their scrolls on the pad. The ticket printed and he made his way to the terminal, not waiting for the others. He was so deep in thought that he ran into someone's back. Mumbling an apology, he made his way to his seat and the rest of the team joined. Alexis had decided to not sit next to him and opted for a small one seat on the other side of the isle, next to the windows. Yang had obviously seen him as he looked down sadly, but said nothing.

As the Airship landed, Alejandro was still awake. He was just staring at his Watch, thinking about the Weapon's manufacturing room he found earlier, aside from other things. Across from him, he noticed that Blake had nodded off on Yang's shoulder, and Ruby had nodded off on Weiss shoulder. Weiss herself was awake and didn't seem to mind Ruby sleeping on her…Until she noticed that Ruby was drooling, after which she shook Ruby very violently.

"Wake up you dolt! You're Drooling on me!" Ruby shot up awake.

"What! Oh, hey Weiss." She sighed, why did she let Ruby sleep on her shoulder?

"Come on, let's go back to the dorms, where you can drool on your own pillow." Yang had gently woken up Blake from her slumber. Alejandro got up and noticed that Alexis had fallen asleep in an awkward angle, and knew she would have some neck pain tomorrow.

"Lex. Lex, wake up." Shaking her gently, he was able to wake her up. She noticed that everyone had gotten off except her and Alex. Silently thanking him, she speed walked to catch up with the rest of the group, leaving him behind. Sighing, he walked out and despite being behind his team by a significant margin. He eventually did get to the dorm, though he was surprised once he walked in.

"Alright Alex, Blake said that you would explain what pissed her off. So spill." Yang was blunt about almost everything. Sighing, he grabbed his laptop and sat down on the table. Everyone had gathered around the table and was listening.

"Alright Blake, show me the part that you read" She scrolled through the notes until she found the paragraph, before sitting back in her chair and crossing her arms with a frown.

"Ok, so...-" he skimmed through the paragraph notes and what note, mumbling before finding a specific paragraph. "I can see how you would think that I'm the person ordering these experiments to be done. Jesus, the wording on this document is terrible. Anyway, unfortunatly the PNC didn't exactly have the...best...person to lead. My predesscesor was very racist and anti-faunus and blah so this was basically put into place to try to have somekind of "Final Solution to the Faunus Question'." He poointed to the

"Alright, questions?" Blake raised her hand instantly, still not convinced entirely.

"Alright, first what is a 'PPG Sensor' and 'ImageSense'? And why not include them in First Run Units?" Oh how he wished they knew how everything worked in the tech business…

"The PPG sensor is the Heart Monitor and Human Monitoring Sensor. That's how humans manage their Aura. The ImageSense sensor is what is needed so that Faunus receive that Aura monitoring feature. Basically, ImageSense monitors the unique parts that make up a Faunus. An example is Ears, Tail, gills if applicable, etc. It automatically detects whether you are a human or Faunus when you first turn on the device. The same way the scrolls do. Don't worry though, that information is kept on the device. If anyone wants that information, they need to literally have your scroll to get access tothat. As for the question "Why don't just use the PPG sensor only?" The PPG sensor was not made to do that and was never updated to. I will work on that in order to prevent this, but it won't happen for some time." Blake nods, not entirely believing him, but giving him the benefit of the doubt. If that makes any sense. Weiss asked her question confused how he couldn't do it, but the SDC could.

"I don't understand, Schnee Dust Corporation can do it, why can't you?"

"Weiss, I don't use any dust in my products. Or at least most, that's why." The reason he corrected himself was because the device on his wrist technically used dust. But it still used it, so it counted. Weiss nodded, understanding the situation. Yang and Ruby had listened as well, but didn't have any questions. When he looked to Alexis, all that pent up anger was ejected in the form of a simple question.

"Alright, now that that's out of the way, why didn't you tell us where you two were at?!" Yang and Ruby looked up at her, worried. Weiss and Blake just stared at her.

"Simple, none of you ever called…or texted for that matter." Yang, Ruby, Weiss, and Alexis eyes widened, not expecting that answer. "Also, I am about 99% sure that Blake was afraid of what Weiss would have said at the time. She wasn't exactly in the right mindset." That elicited a "Hey!' from Weiss, who just huffed and crossed her arms. Alejandro's eyes then widened when it hit him, Alexis had spoken to him for the first time that night.

"Finally, she speaks! Hours of glares and the silent treatment and the weird look!" Alexis gave him a hard look "Just like that!" And then she punched him in the shoulder…hard.

"WHY IS EVERONE HITTING MY ARM? IT HAS FEELINGS TOO!" He rubbed it, trying to ease the pain as he noticed her Frown slowly twitch into a smile as he said that. She proceeded to grab him into a very tight hug, one that could rival Yang's. He heard his back crack in multiple places and the air being literally squeezed out of him.

"Lex….Can't….breathe…..Air….Need" She loosened the hug, and he returned the embrace as she whispered something into his ear.

"Don't ever leave like that again, Ok? Please?" The way she had somewhat begged is what made him agree.

"Sure, but at least try to contact me before giving me the silent treatment? It isn't fair that I get blamed when no one called…" She nodded into his shoulder. They stayed like that for a bit until someone behind them cleared her throat.

"Ahem" They pull out of the embrace and saw Yang smirking. That caused both of them to blush at the awkwardness of the situation. Eventually they all got ready and went to bed.

* * *

Professor Port's Class

"Please take out your Number 115 Pencils. Hopefully you study and paid attention to my lectures, as everything I have said will be on this examination." Alexis smirked, she knew there would be questions from his stories. Next to her, Alejandro was just staring at the Professor as he started to pass out the exams with his arms crossed. Once he got it, he started to look through it. As he went through the pages, he started to smirk, there was no questions on any of his stories. As he examined the last page, his small smirk was oozing smugness everywhere. He turned slightly towards Alexis, who had conveniently placed her head in her hands, knowing she had lost. Eventually, they both did start actually doing the exam.

Weiss was the first out of everyone to finish, with Alejandro finishing as soon as she got up to turn it in. As they both walked up, they noticed Ruby and Yang were also done, and Blake was finishing as well. Alexis was the last to finish and turn hers in. While they had to wait for everyone else, they decided to do other things to preoccupy themselves while they waited. Weiss decided to take out a text book and study, presumably for the next test or something, Ruby was doodling something on a piece of paper, Yang had fallen asleep, Blake was reading a book, Alexis was playing a game on her scroll and Alejandro was folding some pieces of paper. Alexis noticed that and instead of tapping the screen to keep the Nevermore flying, she watched as he folded several pieces of paper. Yang had woken up and looked at Alexis, who still was preoccupied with watching Alex fold paper, before Yang whispered to her

"You know, just watching his hands move like that isn't going to get them to do that to you." Alexis, not wanting to cause a scene, blushed a deep red before letting her head hit the desk. That caught Alex's attention.

"Lex, you alright?" Nodding into the desk, he shrugged before he went back to his project. Since he technically won the bet, a first for him, he decided to allow his smug side come out for a little bit…Just a little bit. What he was doing was making a paper mold of a small briefcase that he will eventually make a metal version of later. After about half an hour of concentration, having to bin three different versions, and needing to go to the bathroom, he finished the paper "prototype". Ruby and Weiss had noticed him basking in the brilliance of something. Ruby tool the liberty of asking for both her and Weiss.

"Alex? What are you doing?" He immediately stopped basking in his brilliance, scratching his head sheepishly

"Uhh…Nothing?" Ruby, not believing him, took the small briefcase.

"Why did you make this?"

"Because I can, now give it back!" Shrugging, she tossed it back. He proceeded to cradle it, like one would with a small child. Rolling her eyes, Ruby went back to drawing.

Weiss noticed her drawing, but didn't say anything. She watched as Ruby concentrated, how her face contorted into a face of someone who is giving it their all. She noticed how her brow creased and how her tongue stuck out a bit. 'She does look while doing that. Wait!? What am I saying? I mean, is it normal for partners to think about each other like this? She does look good in her uniform I mean- STOP!' She shook those thoughts out of her head, then noticed the drawings. It was one of the Team. More Specifically, in pairs, such as Blake and Yang, and Alejandro and Alexis. They weren't bad either, but she noticed the last pairing. It seemed Ruby was putting more effort into the two of them than the others. Ruby then turned around and noticed Weiss watching her draw and quickly hid the picture, praying to every deity that she didn't notice the extra things she was drawing.

"H-hey Weiss. It's not what it looks like." She raised an Eyebrow….Really?

"So you didn't just draw us with our partners then?"

"Yeah, I mean-"

"Ruby, it looks good. Your drawings aren't bad. You have a really good eye for it." Ruby smiled at Weiss compliment. It was a genuine compliment. "Though, would you mind if I see them?" Ruby shook her head violently, making her hair move side to side.

"Why not?"

"It's a Surprise!" That part was true. Once she eventually finished, then she would show it to her team. Weiss just huffed and went back to studying. Eventually, the class ended and Blake had to wake Yang back up. Professor Port then made a small announcement to the class.

"Before you all leave, Professor Glynda Goodwitch has passed information on to me. She has informed me that everyone is to go to the Auditorium after Lunch. The Reason for this is because drawing for the Vytal festival is about to begin!" Everyone began speculating how this would happen, apparently they were starting the Qualifiers early to compensate for the extra transfer students. Beacon received a lot more than they usually do around this time. Everyone eventually went to lunch. Minus Ruby and Alex.

* * *

The Cafeteria

In the Beacon Academy cafeteria, Team RWBY are sitting together as Blake looks over some notes. These include the White Fang insignia, a picture of a Faunus with Horns, and possibly his emblem. Yang then slides up next to her partner.

"Whatcha doing?" Startling Blake, she closes her book.

"Nothing. Just going over notes." Nora flings a grape and Yang catches it in her mouth.

"Lame." Nora giggles as she continues to toss grapes at Yang with a spoon. Yang catches the fruit easily and gives Nora a thumbs up. Ruby, giving an enormous heave, slams a binder onto the table, catching everyone off guard. On the cover of the binder is written "Vytal Festival Activities, Property of Weiss Schnee." This has been hastily crossed out with a red marker pen, and with the same pen, a new title, "Best Day Ever Activities", has been written underneath. Alejandro appears not too far behind, with something clearly rectangular in his Backpack. Before anyone asks, Ruby clears her throat.

"Ahem. Sisters... friends... Weiss."

"Hey!" Ruby ignores Weiss indignant cry and continues with her speech

"Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream."

Yang catches another berry in her mouth, before saying "This ought to be good."

"A dream that one day, the four of us will come together, as a team, and have the most fun anyone has ever had... ever!" Weiss notices the scribbling and her name on the binder. Alexis also notices that the pen Ruby is using has her emblem on it

"Did you steal my binder?"

"And is that my pen?"

Ruby makes a 'peace' signs with both hands "I am not a crook." Both Alex and Blake are confused about what Ruby is talking about.

"What are you talking about?"

"Really Ruby, what are you going on about?"

"I'm talking about kicking off the Year with a bang!" She points her both her fingers at Blake and Alex. Yang, seeing the opportunity, goes for it,

"I always kick my semesters off with a Yang! Eh? Guys? Am I right?" Alex just face palmed

"God Damn it Yang." An apple then hits her in the face. She glares at the person who threw it, who happened to be Nora, and she was jeering her and her pun.

"Boooooooooooooooo!"

Ruby keeps going "Look guys, it's been sometime and a half and between exchange students arriving, qualifying for the Tournament and the tournament itself later on, this semester is going to be great! But, we are going to have really tough classes and less time to spend with each other as time goes on! Which is why I've taken the time to schedule a series of wonderful events for us." Weiss and Alex look at Ruby in surprise.

"I don't know whether to be proud or scared of what you have in store."

"A bit of both Weiss…A Bit of Both…" he responds, noting the stare off between Yang and Nora

Yang, still glaring at Nora, picks up the apple and tosses it across the room. The apple proceeds to hit someone else in the back of the head, eliciting a "Hey!" Nora then starts to giggle at her.

Blake isn't too confident about Ruby's plans. "I don't know. I think I might sit this one out."

"Sit out or not, I think that however we spend this last day, we should do it as a team!" Weiss begins, Nora Screams "I got it!" as Ren tries to stop Nora from throwing two Pies, but fails.

"I for one think that..." she is interrupted by a pie landing on her face. Meanwhile, to her right, Alexis face is also covers by a pie.

Nora is shown to be the one who threw the pie, she sits down and points at Ren who has his head in his palm. Pyrrha's hand is over her mouth and Jaune simply sits staring wide-eyed. In the back, a Student shouts "Food fight!"

Weiss retaliates from the pie, throwing her milk at Nora but hitting Ren instead. Ren throws his bowl at Ruby, who ducks but throws her bowl and hits Juane. Yang throws a couple of apples, which hit Pyrrha. In return the Warrior then throws her drink at Yang, but ends up targeting Alexis, who was cleaning up. Alexis grabs her milk and chucks it at Pyrrah, but hits Nora, who had thrown her meatloaf at Yang but because she was hit as she go, that hit Alejandro.

Things escalated quickly after that. At one point, Juane ends up being tossed and hits a window, startling some students who are outside including a Blue Haired boy and his Monkey Faunus friend. Team JNPR begins to build a fortress-castle thing out of the Tables, with Nora being at the top and laughing maniacally

"Ahahahaha!" Team JNPR are standing on the levels that make up the tower of stacked tables. Nora is on top, with Pyrrah on the second level, and Juane and Ren occupying the third and fourth levels respectively. Nora then mocks Team RWBY in a sing-song voice.

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"

Ruby stomps her foot on a table and points at Team JNPR "Justice will be swift! Justice will be painful! She crushes a carton of milk in her hand "It will be delicious!" Team RWBY raise their fists simultaneously.

"Yeah!"

Nora gets serious at this point before jumping down, and beginning the real food fight. "Off with their heads!" The Hammerwielding girl gestures with her thumb slicing across her neck.

Ruby takes her leader position and gives orders to Yang. "Yang! Turkeys!"

Ren flips over a table of watermelons before JNPR begin to toss them against Team RWBY. Yang rolls over to the turkeys and sticks her fists inside them, proceeding to block and punch the melons as they speed toward her, then throws the turkeys at Jaune. Blake grabs two Baguettes and begins fighting Pyrrah, who also has a Baguette.

Pyrrah gains the upper hand as she breaks Blake's weapon and sends her flying back, and throws her Baguette at Yang, who manages to kick one of them but gets hit by another one. The impact knocks her back and she slides across the table. Alexis begins to fight with Juane, who unfortunately could only find a broken baguette. She broke off a piece of the wooden table and stuck a small metal rod that was on the floor to the side without sharp splinters, making a makeshift and very ghetto armguard-saw-thing with a handle. As Jaune tries to hold her back, Pyrrah sees him in trouble and throws a watermelon at Alexis side swiping her and thrown away from the action.

Alejandro was in a hand to hand combat situation with Ren before Nora throws mustard bombs, exploding everywhere and sending him back. Ruby grabs a tray and surfs the tables, blocking a baguette that Pyrrah throws at her before continuing her powerslide on the table. She lands on Pyrrah, she blocks but Ruby pushes up and knocks her back. Ren and Nora go on the offensive as Ruby falls back and allows Weiss to squirt ketchup on the ground in a spectacular fashion, causing Ren to slip and crash into a pile of tables.

Nora jumps over the tables as they are in the air and grabs onto a metal pole, which she then uses to grab onto a watermelon to create a fruit hammer. As she goes for Weiss, Ruby gets in front, takes the hit and is sent back flying. Weiss grabs a sword fish and begins to go at it with Nora's Watermelon Hammer. Alejandro had gotten up, and was instantly back into the fight as Ren grabbed some celery sticks and made him go on the defensive. Landing a few hits, he sent Ren back as Pyrrah jumped over him and shoulder checked him hard, sending him back into some tables and into Alexis, who was getting back up.

Weiss and Nora are still going at it when a strong hit from Nora knocks her off balance, and capitalizes as she smacks Weiss hard enough to send her into a pillar with enough force to cause it to collapse. Ruby sees this and taps into her semblance to catch Weiss as she falls.

As the pillar collapses around them, Ruby holds her in her arms, screaming. "Weiss, Weiss! Don't leave me! Nooo!" Weiss obviously wasn't dead, but did smile at Ruby's acting.

Yang and Alejandro go back on the offensive as Yang grabbed her turkeys and went against Ren with his celery sticks. Alex was barely able to block a few more watermelons that Nora threw at him, his watch activating and providing a small barrier that the fruit hit. Yang tries to kick Ren, but blocks it with the celery sticks. As they fight on, Yang gains the upper hand and hands Ren an Uppercut that makes him go airbourne. Ren's agility came into play as he flipped and threw more celery sticks at Yang. Yang dodged them and went airbourne, landing a hard hit on Ren from behind, sending him back into more tables.

Alejandro and Nora were in an even match, as he landed some hits and despite Nora hitting him with the Hammer, he was able to block a few and dodge some hits as well. As Nora tried again, Alejandro delivered a kick at the right time that hit the hammer mid swing and caused it to return-to-sender and hit Nora, who was sent back. Nora saw Ren down and instead focused her attention at Yang, who followed suit.

Soon the two were exchanging blows, but a miscalculated punch allowed Nora an open opportunity and hit Yang, causing her to go through the Roof and into the heavens. In the Air, Yang looked around at how high she was, and she swore she could see their little cabin from here.

Blake had gotten up and grabbed sausages. Using that, she was able to whip Nora back against the Vending machines, causing them to eject out cans of soda that were about to burst.

Nora meanwhile used MelonHammer to launch a few more watermelons at RWBY. Alexis was slowly getting up and didn't notice that one of the large fruits was coming her way. Alex was able to get to her in time and using his Grifball skills acted as some sort of keeper, blocking the melons from hitting his blonde partner. That included a spectacular dive to save a watermelon that had a curve to it.

Using the watermelons he just saved, he quickly lined them up and began to kick each one. Nora was not expecting the watermelons to return to her, including the one that smacked the side of her head. One of the melons was able to confuse Jaune with its curve as it hit his leg. Pyrrah was able to block and break the melons, and Ren simply dodged them.

Somehow, Nora was able to get a catapult and launch the remaining melons across the cafeteria. It didn't have a specific destination, but it seemed that they were going to rain dowm around the back where Alexis was.

Alex knew he wasn't going to be able to block them, so he threw himself ontop of Alexis instead to protect her from the oncoming waves of deadly/delicious fruit. The fruit didn't hit them, but Alexis wasn't going to complain about how close she was to him. She could smell the cologne he was using.

"You alright?" He asked her, flashing a smile as he helped her up. She simply nodded, blushing furiously once he returned to the fight. They were really, really close together that time.

Meanwhile, Nora throws the Soda grenades at Blake, who is caught off guard by them but is able to dodge them. Pyrrah sees the cans on the ground, and taps into her semblance. As the Soda cans lift, the brunette CEO's face turns from one of awe into one of horror as the he figured where those cans were heading.

As Pyrrah launches all the cans at once he pounds his fist into the ground, a small energy field emitting from his wrist worn weapon encompasses and protects him from the sugary drink grenades. Blake isn't as lucky as she takes the brunt of all of it and is tossed into the back.

Ruby gets up from 'mourning' Weiss' fictional demise and Alejandro gets up from being in the kneeling stance. Nora begins to smirk as Ruby sees Alejandro standing as well. They make eye contact for a brief second before they nod, a non-verbal plan had been hatched. He finds a two watermelons and places one on the floor before taking the other one in his arms.

Ruby begins speeding towards Team JNPR. Alex meanwhile begins to pick up pace, using the watermelon as a grifball and running towards "Goal". Pyrrah is about to use her semblance again to try and create a barrier, but Alex was able to kick the watermelon and managed to hit and disorient her.

Ruby fully taps into her semblance and begins to spin, leaving rose petals on the ground as well as causing enough momentum to pick up all the debris and Team JNPR. Alex drops the second watermelon/ball and sees Nora trying a last ditch effort to stop Ruby. He fires a screamer of a kick that manages to send Nora into Ren. That left Ruby free to continue her plan, the debris came barreling down and Ruby stopped before hitting the wall. Her cape creating a crater in the wall. JNPR is then swept up by the debris and slammed into that cracked wall and they are painted with soda and food. They slide off the wall, leaving only their outlines as Ruby comes back down.

The doors to the cafeteria open and Glynda enters the room growling. She proceeds to use her semblances to re-organize the room, fixing the damage done as well. Team RWBY and JNPR take a seat at one of the tables as she continues the repairs,

"Children, please." she adjusts her glasses "Do not play with your food!"

Nora burps aloud as both Teams JNPR and RWBY try to act civilized, but fail. A screaming Yang then crashes from the ceiling onto Alex. Yang gets up, dazed from the impact and notices him on the ground, vulnerable.

"Ow. Where's the leak mam…" He collapsed back onto the floor

"Let it go." Ozpin approaches her from behind as she sighs

G"They're supposed to be the defenders of the world."

"And they will be, but right now they're still children." In the background, Everyone is laughing as Alexis helps a dazed Alex, to his feet as. "So why not let them play the part? After all, it isn't a role they'll get to have forever." Glynda sighs again, leaving the two teams to laugh with each other and enjoy themselves.


	10. Chapter 10

After leaving the cafeteria and receiving a very thorough talking too, Team RWBY made their way to the auditorium. Since everyone was there already, there was no one in the halls to block the way and within a small amount of time and were at the auditorium. Conveniently, they were next to Team JNPR and there was exactly five seats available. They made haste and made it to their seats with Ruby sitting next to Weiss, Yang next to Blake, and Blake sitting next to Alexis who was sitting next to Alex.

While they were busy talking with each other, Professor Goodwitch made her way to the stage and basically shutting everyone up without having to say it. She adjusted her glasses as she began to address everyone in the auditorium.

"As everyone knows, this qualifying tournament will determine which one of you hunters and huntresses in training will represent Beacon at the Vytal Festival. This year however, we have decided to hold both the qualifiers for our students and the transfer students at the same time." Everyone was whispering to each other in surprise, this was certainly news to them. Glynda got everyone's attention when she continued speaking.

"Since both qualifiers will be held at the same time, we have planned out how it will go. But before I explain that, I must explain the format for our qualifying session and how you will placed in your groups. Everyone will be seeded into pots. Which pot you are placed in will be determined by the following factors; Previous Records from another combat academy before transfer. Examples are Sanctum, Signal, and Atlas International. What this means is your combat record at the previous academies, if you attended, will affect what pot you will be placed in. Geographic location, where you either lived or studied the year before attending Beacon will also be a factor. And fight style. I do realize that we haven't had many sparring sessions so far, but we do have all of your records. Unfortunately, we will have to make do with that for now. One more, and this only applies to Second, Third, and Fourth Year Students. If your grades are not up to snuff, you are automatically ineligible to compete. We are a combat academy, so academics are part of it."

That elicited a groan from almost everyone, a lot of them knowing they have automatically failed to qualify. Meanwhile, where Team RWBY was sitting, Ruby had been confused on more than one occasion.

She turned to Weiss who was paying attention to Glynda. Despite thinking that this was a bit over the top just for a qualifying tournament, Weiss was still a little bit excited, but was taken out of her train of thought as Ruby asked her a question.

"Why don't they just group us based on what year we are in?" Weiss also wondered that. Usually they would be grouped up by the year they are in. Or in some cases, order of succession in a team. But all this?

"I don't know Ruby, maybe they are trying to prepare us early?" Ruby shrugged before Yang came in.

"I heard a rumor that the reason they are doing it this way is because this is how we will be placed in groups at the Vytal Tournament." Weiss rose an eyebrow in response. Was she really going to believe a rumor, especially one by someone who liked to gossip?

"Come on Yang, do you honestly think that they would change something like that?"

"I'm not saying that's true Ice Queen" Weiss huffed at the nickname "I am just saying that's what I heard. Apparently it has something to do with the tournament being too predictable lately. I guess they are trying to change it.

Weiss didn't say anything, trying to comprehend what Yang had just said. It is true the tournament has been a bit...too predictable, at least to her. But if the rumor is true, instead of fighting First Year students from other academies, they might have to face Third Year Students, Fourth Year Students, and even some full on Hunters. She turned to Ruby, but noticed that she was looking in down in thought.

"Ruby, what's wrong?" A couple of moments passed before Ruby looked up at Weiss.

"I was just thinking about all this. I mean how are we supposed to compete with third and fourth year students? I'm scared that I could fail to qualify and not go to the tournament. And that I would let you all down! I mean imagine that, all of you make it to the Vytal Festival Tournament and I fail to make it. That isn't embarrassing just to me, but I would let you down as well Weiss." Ruby was genuinely scared that she would fail to make it far enough to be able to go to the festival. She was also scared that she would embarrass Weiss. Trying to be the best teammate should could be, Weiss tried her best to comfort Ruby.

"Calm down Ruby, I have faith in you. I know that you will make it. In fact, if you want, we could train together." Ruby looked up at Weiss, who had a small smile.

"Really?" That would mean that they would spend more time together, and that is something that Ruby didn't mind in the slightest.

"Yes Ruby, of course. As part of my 'best-teammate-ever initiative', I will make sure that you'll do your best!" Of course Weiss wanted the best for Ruby, not only as a teammate, but as a friend. Something she won't admit unless she was alone or talking to the security box that is Alejandro. But, that wasn't her only motive for helping Ruby. Over the past month or so, they have been spending a lot more time together. Weiss had gotten a bit closer to the brunette. Whenever they were studying together or just at the dorm, Weiss felt something that she hadn't felt in a very long time. But she couldn't but her finger on it. All she knew was she liked the feeling. Plus, despite scolding Ruby, she liked her.

'Obviously as a friend, nothing more.' she thought to herself. She turned to Ruby and noticed that she had quickly turned her head back to the front, hoping that Weiss had noticed. Unfortunately, she did but didn't say anything. Weiss looked at Ruby and began to notice how her short hair became red at the tips, as if it was natural. She noticed her child like face. And how cute she was when she scowled, like she was doing right now. 'Wait, what? Did I just call her cute? I mean, yeah she is. And she reminds me a little of a puppy- WHY AM I THINKING THAT!?' Covering her face, she fell into her own thoughts.

Meanwhile, Yang and Blake were talking about what Glynda had just said. Blake, due to her Faunus heritage, had better hearing than most humans. So she had overhead what Yang had told Weiss.

"So Yang," She turned her head to face Blake. "I heard you tell Weiss something about how the Vytal festival was going to be changed."

"Like I said, it was a rumor I heard. The reason, at least from what I heard, was because the tournament was getting a little too one-sided. So I guess the IHA figures doing it like this would be the best way to combat that. And if the rumor is indeed true, this will apply to both Brackets."

"Brackets?"

"Both Championships, they are technically called Championship Brackets." Blake gave a nod of understanding. Before she could ask anything else, Glynda got everyone's attention again.

"Alright, before we begin the draw, I should explain how this will work since the transfer students will be competing at the same time. Once you are all seeded and placed in groups, Qualifying will begin tomorrow and will take place throughout the year. The top two from each group will make it to the knockout stage, and the third place from each group will join the transfer students in their knockout stage. This allows everyone a second chance. The best four-third place students in the group stage for the Transfer Students Qualifying will be allowed to fight for their last chance against other students from the other academies at the end of the session. Any questions?" Someone raised their hand and Glynda picked them.

"Why do we have to do it this way? What happened to the old format? What Glynda would say next would turn Yang's rumor into a fact.

"The IHA has changed the way we determine who goes. The reason is because this is how it will be down at the Festival Tournament. We were told a week before classes had started, so we had to come up with the format very quickly. Hopefully, next time, we will have perfected it." Weiss, Ruby, and Blake all stared at Yang. Alex and Alexis weren't surprised. They had been informed one way or another about this so they were prepared, but neither knew the other knew.

"SEE! I told you!" Yang wore a proud grin, but her gloated was stopped short.

"Any other questions?'" No one raised their hand or spoke up. "Ok, let us begin the Draw in order to determine who will be representing Beacon at the Vytal Festival! So this how it will work, everyone is in our computer system, and based on the prerequisites I mentioned early, you will all be drawn and placed into groups. There will be a group leader. That has no significant value other than to tell the others in the group that you are the highest rank in that group once all the coefficients are added up. Before we officially draw, here are the students who will not be eligible to qualify."

A huge list of teams were shown, and in total only about 40 or so individuals were eligible to qualify. As everyone tried to see if they were on it, Glynda made sure to tell the first year students that they would have a free pass, and that this list does not apply to them. After about 10 minutes of the list being on the board, the list disappeared as Glynda began to speak again.

"First we shall see who the group leaders are." She sets up the program that will handle to process, before showing that empty groups on the big screen above and behind her. "Ok, I shall now select the Leader for Group A. The screen begins to randomly show pictures of the eligible students, using complex algorithms to determine the Leader for that group. After about thirty seconds, the Bacon Academy Logo appeared, before the person was shown.

"Leader for Group A, from Team RWBY, Weiss Schnee!" her name and Picture with her emblem appeared, before being dragged into the first slot of the first group. Team RWBY all looked at her, with Ruby congratulating her.

"ohmaygodweisscongrats!" A small blush tinted Weiss cheeks as she was given a small hug by her. Yang and Blake gave her a high five and a small congratulatory pat. Alexis gave her a small handshake, and Alex just gave her a two finger small salute. Team JNPR also gave Weiss some congratulatory salutations and what not.

"Now for Group B" The same process happened again, and the result wasn't surprising.

"The Leader for Group B, From Team JNPR, Pyrrah Nikos!" Pyrrah's entrance music began playing as her Emblem and Picture were displayed. Team JNPR congratulated Pyrrah, and Team RWBY also gave the some congratulatory salutations, before placing their attention on the board.

"The Leader for Group C is Ruby Rose!" Her name and Emblem appeared as well before being placed in the first slot of Group C. Yang grabbed Ruby in a bone crushing hug, which drew all the air from her lungs"

"RUBY IM SO PROUD OF YOU!" Ruby was struggling to get air, and she swore she heard her back crack in a few places.

"Yang….air….need"

Yang put her down but was still ecstatic about the development. Blake and Alexis acknowledged Ruby's achievement. Alejandro gave another two finger salute, which Ruby returned. Weiss meanwhile, acknowledged her in a different way.

"See? I told you, you dolt. You'll do fine." Ruby nodded happily as she went for a fist pump. Weiss just stared at her.

"Come on Weiss! Don't leave me hanging!" Weiss conceded and gave a small fist pumped, which caused Ruby to silently cheer to herself. Seeing that made Weiss's mouth twitch at the corners, before turning back to the big screen.

The Draw wasn't too interesting after that. Two Second year students was placed as leader of Group D and J, a fourth Year of Group G, and two Third Years for Groups H and I. The only interesting part was Jaune somehow being drawn as leader of Group F, causing even Glynda to double check.

"Ok, that concludes the drawing to determine the heads of each group. We shall now commence placing all of you in a group."

"Joining Weiss Schnee in Group A…Cardin Winchester!" Everyone gasped, that was the first example of mixing all the students, instead of placing them in their own groups. Now everyone knew that it would be a very tough situation. Weiss just looked uninterested at this, she knew that Cardin couldn't defend himself to save his own life.

"In Group B, Joining Pyrrah Nikos…Coco Adel!" All the second Year students began to cheer, she had made it to the semifinals of the Tournament last year.

"Group C, Joining Ruby Rose… Alejandro Rojo!" Music began playing and his emblem and Picture were displayed on Screen. The Prominent "PNA" logo on the Right Breast of his shirt in the picture. Ruby went up to him and offered her Opinion on the matter

"Team Special Snowflake!" Alexis, Weiss, and Blake raised their eyebrows simultaneously in confusion, and Yang just giggled at her sisters antics. Alex responded to Ruby

"Oi! Team Special Snowflakes is finally getting the Rep they deserved!" That Caused Ruby to laugh as well. The other three were still lost, but said nothing.

Ren was placed in Group D, Yang in Group F and Blake in Group J. The Second Round ended and instantly, the Third Round Commenced.

"The Third Round of the Draw will begin. In Group A… Alexis Rhodes!" her Picture and Emblem was displayed before being put into the Group.

"At least I won't be alone with Cardin in the Group" Weiss said, she was relieved because at least she would know someone else in her group.

"Gee Weiss, thanks…" Weiss rolled her eyes, smirking.

"In Group B, Clover Handsen!" Apparently, a Third Year Student would join Pyrrah in Group B along with Coco.

"In Group C, Dove Bronzewing!" Alejandro instantly remembered him when his picture went up on the screen. He was one of the people who harassed Velvet not too long ago. Third Round came and went as Nora was placed in the same group with Ren. Both Velvet and Blake were placed in the second to last and last groups respectively. Then the final round of the draw started

The Rest of the Groups were filled and the Groups were displayed.

* * *

Group A

Weiss Schnee

Cardin Winchester

Alexis Rhodes

Evelyn Savanna

* * *

Group B

Pyrrah Nikos

Coco Adel

Clover Handsen

Micheal J. Caboose

* * *

Group C

Ruby Rose

Alejandro Rojo

Dove Bronzewing

Tanner Foust

* * *

Group D

Hilda Lito

Lie Ren

Nora Valkyrie

Emily Garcia

* * *

Group E

Selena Del Luna

Sasha Tye

Matilda Don

Evangelina Sandero

* * *

Group F

Jaune Arc

Yang Xiao Long

David McTavish

Amber Celica

* * *

Group G

Nicholas Vettel

Natalie Gonzalez

Yatsuhashi Daichi

Dexter Grif

* * *

Group H

Grace Aqua

Fox Alistair

Alexander Mersilla

Montel Sake

* * *

Group I

Sebastian Copernicus

Russel Thrush

Velvet Scarlatina

John Felix

* * *

Group J

Zyda June

Sky Lark

Blake Belladonna

Marcus Cena

* * *

Here are the groups you all have been placed in, the first bout will take place the following Friday." The screen with the groups disappeared and the Rules of the Tournament and an explanation of everything was displayed on the screen. Glynda began to explain how this will work,

"Each bout of the Group Stage will take place at three to four week intervals. Each Group Member will face other group members twice. Each match in Group Stage will be limited to twenty minutes. Points will determine your place in your group after your match. You will receive three points for a victory, and none if you lose. If two competitors reach the time limit, regardless of Aura level they will both be awarded with one point. Information about the next stage will be given as we get closer to the end of the group stage. Your Scrolls have been sent a copy of the match schedule that include the dates and time. That is all for today. Good Luck to all of you, you are all dismissed."

* * *

After Assembly

Team RWBY left the Auditorium, with JNPR not too far behind. Ruby was the first to speak up.

"Wow! I can't believe I am the head of my group! This is so exciting!" Weiss smiled a little as she saw Ruby all excited and what not. Though she was surprised when Yang suddenly became mature…for about half a minute.

"Rubes, being head of your group is a big deal. You are not only representing us, like Weiss is in her group. But you're also repping me, so don't mess up. Besides, just because you are the head of your group doesn't mean you'll stay there. I mean" she whispered the next part "You have someone who could easily take that from you" They both turned around behind them and looked at the 'Alex' pair as they dubbed them. Alejandro was talking to Alexis about the whole bet thing from Port's class. Alexis didn't want to hold up her end of the bet.

"I said no such thing!"

Alejandro responded in a monotone voice. "Yes you did…"

"I did not!"

"Yes you did"… They both noticed Yang and Ruby looking at them

"Uh, can I help the both of you?" Alejandro responded, raising an eyebrow.

"No, we were just watching."

"….Oooookay then…" Yang and Ruby turned around continuing their conversation.

"He is a huge threat in your group and you know it! I mean, it isn't the group of death or anything, but it'll be hard for you to keep that top spot. Think you can handle it Ruby?"

"Of course I can Yang! I am not a kid anymore!" She pouted in a childlike fashion, causing Weiss and Blake to chuckle. Yang just rolled her eyes.

"Of course you are Ruby…You just need to learn to grow up a bit. And being here at Beacon, meeting new people and what not will help you grow up."

"I don't need anyone to help me grow up…I Drink Milk."

"…"

"…"

"…Okay then….Moving on, were are we going anyway?" Blake spoke up, answering her question

"I'm going to the library, I'm going to try to catch up with my reading" That gave Yang an idea.

"Alright, I'll go too! Ruby, we should get that one board game!" Ruby's eyes lit up

"You mean Remnant: The Trading Card Board Game?"

"Yeah!" Ruby remembered that she packed it in one of her drawers.

"Let's go get it then!" They both ran off screaming in unison

"We'll meet you guys at the library!" Blake, Weiss, Alexis and Alejandro just watched as they ran out of site. Alejandro decided to speak up

"So…I guess we are all going to the library?"

"I…guess so?" Weiss responded, confused. Alexis then spoke up

"Alright…" She was a bit irked, she wanted to spend more time with Alejandro….alone. Behind them, Juane decided to make himself and his team's presence known.

"Mind if we tag along?" Weiss just "hmphed" and walk toward the library with Blake following. Alexis answered his question.

"Sure, we" he gestured to herself and her partner "don't mind at all. I think it would be better for our health actually if we stick with you guys." Juane nodded in approval. And thought it would be a brilliant idea to hit on Alexis…in front of Pyrrah.

"So Alexis is it?" She nods, "Well, I don't think we have had a conversation. Just the two of us. Let me start. The name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it." She just blinks…confused, a bit weirded out, and suddenly regretting her decision.

"Um, ok…Juane? If you don't mind, I am going to stand over here" She points to Alejandro's left side, while he listens to Nora telling a story. Pyrrah was watching from behind, listening and a bit irritated with Juane. Alexis does move to Alejandro's left, leaving Juane a little bit confused. Eventually, they make it to the library. Alexis and Alejandro quickly make their way to that table….Or more like Alexis grabs Alejandro by the arm and literally drags him as she walked briskly towards her two other teammates. They both notice that both Weiss and Blake are reading. Blake is reading her book, while Weiss is studying from her text book. Alexis took a seat and took out her notebook and a pencil. She began to draw…or write something. Alejandro decided to forgo any type of educational initiatives for the day and had decided he wanted to play some games. He took out a tablet, with the word "SHIELD" written on the back, along with a controller that also said "SHIELD" on the bottom. After setting it all up, he was playing "Art Electric Sports: FIGA 2KXX" Weiss and Alexis took notice, and Weiss spoke first.

"Really? You're going to play here? Can't you wait until you play at the dorm or something?" He shook his head, destroying the newbies is something that takes time and dedication.

"No can do Weiss, playing this takes a certain type of Finesse, skill, and Dedication" She rolled her eyes as he began to play a match. Eventually, his opponent decided to quit.

Meanwhile, Alexis had been watching him play. She also like videos games, but she was usually a bit too busy to be able to enjoy them for more than an hour at most. She wanted to play him, as it would give her an excuse to get a little closer. The chance that he had a spare controller were slim, but she took the shot anyway and asked.

"Alex?" He paused and raised an eyebrow in question. "Mind if I play against you?" He looked at her confusedly

"You…Play Games?" She nodded her head before answering and mocking fake offense and hurt

"What? Do you think that just because I'm a girl, I don't play games" She shifted from fake offense to fake mad. Alejandro saw her begin to get mad, and fearing for his life he tried to calm her down….which he failed at doing so…very badly.

"No, it's just that you…I didn't think you-"

"You thought that I can't play? That girls shouldn't entertain themselves the same way guys do?"

"I never said that at all!" Both Blake and Weiss were watching the scene unfold, the both knew that Alexis wasn't actually upset. Unfortunately Alejandro did believe that and was making a fool of himself. Which both of them found to be extremely funny.

"I give up…" He planted his face into the desk and when he heard giggling, he looked up to see Alexis laughing at him. Confused he asked her.

"What's so funny?"

"You actually thought I was mad!" Of course he thought she was mad.

"Yeah I actually thought you were upset. Wait, you weren't actually mad?"

"Of course not…"

"…"

"…"

"…You are such a big MEANIE!" The way he said that in a childlike manner caused her to laugh loud enough for the librarian to shush her from afar. Smiling as he made her laugh, he reached into his bag and pulled out another controller.

"Anyway, you are in luck! I happen to have a second controller right here!" She looked at him, confused as to why he actually carried two. Deciding that it wasn't important, she took it and turned it on. The truth was that he didn't like waiting for the controller's to charge, so he would bring two in case one decided to take the piss and die. After setting everything up again, Alexis moved her chair to sit closer to Alejandro as they looked at the somewhat small screen. As setup the game, she noticed how close they were to each other. And she began to notice how he looked when he was concentrating. She was snapped out of her trance as she saw he lips move.

"Lex, are you going to pick a team?" Shaking her head a bit, she chose her team and the venue they were going to play in. After they both setup their squads, and Alejandro watching very nervously as Alexis made some HEAVY modifications to her squad, like root formation changes and play positions, they decided on playing two-ten minute halves. As the match progressed, the game began to irritate him.

"Penalty…PENALTY!? NO?!" The player controlled by Alexis performed a slide tackle in the box from behind that took down his player, which under normal circumstances would be a spot kick. The AI Referee decided to not award it and pointed at the ball, signaling it was a fair tackle. Alexis decided to further irritate him with her smug comments

"That was a fair tackle, it was for the ball."

"That was not for the ball! You took me out!"

"Did the ref call it?"

"…"

"That's what I thought."

Around the start of the second half, the referee decided that she had not paid him enough, and started to call the smallest fouls against her. An example was when both her defender and Alejandro's midfielder crashed into each other. She received a yellow card and the foul was dangerously close to the box.

"What?! That was just player collision!"

"No… Clearly you fouled me right there"

"I DID NOT AND YOU SAW!" Deciding that he should give her a bit of her own medicine, he responded the same way she did early.

"Did the Referee call it as a foul?" She just crossed her arms and pouted "Thought so…"

Throughout the match the game was very close with unfair fouls called on both ends. But at the end of the Regulation it was tied 1-1. Weiss and Blake had put down their respective reading material sometime around the second half and were watching the game from either side of them, both of them believing that watching them play and argue is more entertaining that the reading they were doing… And that both Ruby and Yang hadn't returned. Since it was the end of regulation, they played an additional fifteen minute game halves which were about three minutes of actual time per half. After defensive errors on both sides, one of Alejandro's strikers broke through and was making a run at goal. That in turn forced Alexis to commit a "tactical foul" to prevent him from scoring, so she did what any normal person would do in the situation…She forced her Keeper to come out and take out the striker from the legs.

"PENALTY?! PLEASE?!" The librarian got up and shushed him, but he didn't care. The Referee in the game pointed to the Penalty Spot and Showed the Goalkeeper a red card, ejected her Goalkeeper.. Alexis had to make her last substitution and force out a Midfielder for another Goalkeeper. After that had been set and done, it was time to actually attempt the spot kick. Choosing the player that would take it, He concentrated, trying to time it just to get the right amount of power at a very specific corner. As he lined everything up and was putting everything to action, Yang had conveniently showed up with Ruby.

"We're back!"

Her commotion caused Alejandro to aim too far to the top right corner, and the ball hit the top crossbar and went out for a Goal kick.

"GOD DAMN IT" he groaned and put his face in his hands, that was the last kick of the match and now they had to go into the Penalty Shootouts. Yang was confused for a second.

"Well, I'm happy to see you too…"

"Sorry Yang, I didn't mean to be rude. It's just that you yelled right as I was going to score a penalty and win." Alexis noted his slightly arrogant answer and responded.

"Who said you were going to make it?"

"Come on, you seriously think I would have missed if I hadn't been distracted?"

"It could have happened."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night…You're up first by the way."

Alexis Confidence had dwindled down as the match progressed, but she was not about to give in. She was up to take the first Kick of the shootout and she told herself that she wouldn't not make a fool out of herself. Lining everything up, she took the shot…and she made it.

"Yes! You're up next" Her smug smirk increased as she saw that a defender was going to take the shot first for his team. It was immediately erased from her face as his shot went into the top right corner. At this point, Yang and Ruby were watching while they setup their game on the table. Alexis was next…and she made it again. The Alejandro was up…and he also made it.

It was the end of the mandatory five shot-a-piece first round , and now it was sudden death. Basically, if one missed and the other scored, the other would win. Alexis was up first.

'Alright, concentrate. No pressure…' She aimed and carefully timed the shot. It was a perfect shot, in the top left corner where no one could reach it. Impressed, Alejandro ready himself up. The pressure was mounting, the fate of the entire world was on his shoulders, and he began to sweat. As he lined everything up Nora threw an Apple at Yang, still upset at the result of the food fight. Unfortunately, she missed and hit Alejandro on the arm that caused him to aim too far to the left. He watched in horror as his strikers shot hit the post and went out, ending the match. Alexis tried not to be too smug about the victory…the keyword is tried…

"Wow, that was…a good try" He just held his head in his hands.

"Damn it…" Showing that he isn't a sore loser…most of the time, he extended his hand in a sign of good sportsmanship. "Good Game Lex, I'll get you next time I suppose."

That surprised her, she thought that by the way he was acting during the match that he would throw a fit. Taking herself out of that, she took his hand and shook it. After a couple of seconds neither let go but Yang, who wanted to play the board game, interrupted them by saying something and covering it with a fake cough. Alexis heard it but apparently Alejandro didn't.

"Getaroom"

Alexis just glared at Yang while Alejandro put away the tablet and controllers before he noticed the game that Ruby was setting up.

"Really? This? You know Yang cheats at this." Yang defended herself…and did a somewhat crap job of it.

"Hey! That was only one time! And that was because both you and Ruby were double teaming me!" He just rolled his eyes.

"It's not my fault you don't know how to negotiate very well with the other kingdoms. If you had bargained accordingly, maybe that wouldn't have happened." Before Yang could say anything, she was stopped by Alexis.

"Don't you need to play this in groups of two or something?"

"Yeah, I was thinking that we could split into three groups with two each and play. You want to play?" She nodded. "Alright! So what are the teams?" Ruby instantly went to her partner

"I'm with Weiss!"

Weiss was confused "Wait, what?"

Yang decided not to make a joke and paired up with Blake. "I guess I'm with Blake, and that means that Alexis, you are paired with Alejandro since he is the only person left…not that you mind" She grinned before dodging a book that was thrown her way.

* * *

Yang was watching closely while Blake, who is obviously distracted, just sat there next to her. Weiss was sitting next to Ruby, who has been contemplating her next move. Alexis was planning strategically while Alejandro was thinking to himself if he should go grab a bag of chips…It's been Five minute already since the start of Ruby's turn. She eventually made her move

"Hmmmmm... All right... All right!" she points at Yang "Yang Xiao Long, prepare your kingdom for battle!"

Yang balls her fist "Bring it on!"

Ruby begins her turn "I deploy the Atlesian Air Fleet!" Slaping the card down on the table. Yang feigns a look of shock. "Looks like I get to fly right over your Ursai and attack your walls directly!" She makes noises like airplanes flying and bombing as she makes a bird with her hands.

"You fiend!"

"And since Atlas is part of Mantle, my repair time is only one turn." Yang begins laughing arrogantly raises a card.

Pretty sneaky, sis, but you just activated my trap card! Yang shows the card to Ruby, who is visibly disturbed. "Giant Nevermore!" She slams the card down on the table "If I roll a seven or higher, fatal feathers will slice your fleet in two!"

"But, if you roll a six or lower, the Nevermore will turn on your own forces! "

"That's just a chance I'm willing to take." Yang said.

Meanwhile, sitting at the table next to them, Ren and Pyrrha are studying, and Nora is drooling as she sleeps. Juane is reading an 'X-Ray and Vav' Comic before his attention is diverted to Team RWBY as Ruby screamed in defeat

"Nooooo! My fearless soldiers!" Yang just scoffs.

"Eh, most of them were probably androids."

"Goodbye my friends, you will be avenged."

"Not until I draw my rewards! Which are double this round thanks to the Mistral Trade Route!"

"Bah!"

Meanwhile, back with Team JNPR, Nora is drooling in her sleep and muttered "Oh. Have pancakes" before her drool bubble is popped by Ren. Pyrrah notices Juane reading the comic book and then confiscates it, trading it for a textbook while she reads it. Yang meanwhile, is showing no remorse towards Ruby.

"Oh, and what's this? The Smugglers of Wind Path?"

"Bah! Bah, I say!"

"I say, it looks like I'm taking two cards in my hand!"

As Pyrrha reads Jaune's comic, a Nevermore player piece is tossed over Jaune's shoulder. Another piece bounces off of his head.

"Have you no heart?" Ruby then collapses on the table, crying. "Nooo!"

It's now Weiss's turn, but she got lost somewhere in transit with all the stuff that just happened

"Well, Weiss, it's your turn".

"I have... absolutely no idea what's going on."

Yang slides up beside her and puts her hand on her shoulder. "Look, it's easy! You're playing as Vacuo which means that all Vacuo-based cards come with a bonus"

"That sounds dumb."

Yang starts looking through Weiss' cards. "See, you've got Sandstorm, Desert Scavenge... Oh, oh!"She pulls up a card to show Weiss. "Resourceful Raider! See, now you can take Ruby's discarded Air Fleet, thus stabbing her in the back—"Ruby speaks up, albeit indignantly.

"Nooo!"

Yang continues where she left off "—and put it in your hand!"

"Okay."

"And since Vacuo warriors have an endurance against Natural-based hazards, you can use Sandstorm to disable my ground forces and simultaneously infiltrate my kingdom!" She points a finger at Weiss. "Just know that I will not forget this declaration of war."

"And that means..."

Ruby explains the next part, with her head down and still crying "You're just three moves away from conquering Remnant!"

Weiss stands and a coincidental thunder clap accompanies Weiss' as she begins to laugh psychotically.

"Yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces! Cower as they pillage your homes and weep as they take your children from your very arms!"

"Trap card..." Yang holds a trap card in her hand

"Huh?"

"Yang shuffles the pieces on the board, with Weiss' pieces disappearing "Your armies have been destroyed."

Weiss slumps in her chair, tearing up. "I hate this game of emotions we play." Ruby hops into Weiss' lap.

"Stay strong, Weiss! We'll make it through this together!"

Weiss blushes a little bit before responding "Shut up!" Weiss hugs Ruby, hesitant at first. "Don't touch me!"

"Alright! Team A&A, you're up!"

Alexis and Alejandro were doing something with Alexis' weapon. His tablet was on the table and was connected to her weapon. Alexis went first

"Alright!" She stands up and activates a part of her weapon "First, I deploy our shared air force! In Offensive Positions!" She places the card in question onto her weapon

"Augmented Reality Vision Link Established!" His tablet voiced and then proceeded to show a 3D projection of the card, with it animated to look as if it was actually flying. Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang looked on in surprise and, in Yang and Ruby's case, excitement. Ruby commented and the rest added in.

"Whoa! That so freaking cool!"

"I agree with Ruby that is awesome"

"Wow that is amazing!"

"I agree with Weiss on that. Pretty neat."

Alexis continued her turn "I also activate Our Airforces' special ability! By giving up some of our stake in Vale and Vacuo, We gain an additional attack phase which allows us to attack twice in one turn! I choose to attack..." She looks around the table. Ruby was still in Weiss' lap and Blake looks nervous. Yang however, looks unfazed. "You!" She points at Yang "Yang Xiao Long! Prepare to Duel!" The virtual airships began to move towards Yang, causing Ruby to look on with even more excitement.

Yang smirks as she pulls out a trap card. "You just activated my trap! Electromagnetic storm! Now, all airships that attack me will instantly be disabled and destroyed!" She begins to laugh like a manic with a smug grin, right up to when Alejandro stepped in. The tablet began to show the Electric storm surround the fleet of Airships.

"Not so fast! I activate my magic card, Bubble Shield! By switching one group of soldiers from their current offensive position to a defensive one, this bubble shield will protect anything I choose from any other player for three turns!" He switches a small group of android soldiers near the Kingdom run by Ruby into a defensive position. "I choose to defend…the Airforce Fleet!" The virtual fleet of airships hit turbulence as the storm picks up, but suddenly a Yellow shield is deployed as the first of many lighting strikes began to hit the Airships! "Now, they can make their way towards their target with no problem at all!" The Airships began to shoot virtual guns and lasers at Yang's Kingdom, which made Ruby bounce with excitement. This added a whole new level of fun to an otherwise ordinary board game! Alexis continued her turn after Alejandro's save

"Now, with you Kingdom under our Control, we shall rename it! But first, the second attack phase! Ruby Rose! Prepare to Duel!" The Original Fleet, plus an additional one from Yang's kingdom began to fly in a 'V' formation. Ruby was confused about that

"Hey! Why are Yang's former Airships now with you guys?" Yang was just crying with her head down, Blake trying to sooth her ego as it was destroyed that turn.

"Did you forget its special ability? If this Airforce fleet destroys another 'Active' one, that now become part of ours and gives us yet another attack phase! Meaning, we can attack a total of three times this turn! I attacked Yang, so know I only have two attack phases remaining. Both of which are going for you!" The Airships, which were now all encompassed by the shield, floated towards Ruby's kingdom and promptly cleaned house. Destroying almost all of the Kingdom and causing Ruby to groan. She had lost and there wasn't anything she could do. It was all up to Weiss now. Alexis ended her turn, and was now Alexandro's turn

"I switch my defensive soldiers into attack formation! And order them to go for the Kingdom controlled by Blake!" Both Alejandro and Alexis managed to control 97% of Remnant by this time. Juane had been watching from his table and he came up to them.

"Hey! Can I play?"

Ruby shook her head. "Sorry Jaune, we've already got 6 people. And those two-"she pointed at the 'A&A' pair "Are too overpowered anyway…" Weiss chimed in as well.

"Besides, this game requires a certain level of tactical cunning that I seriously doubt that you possess."

"Uhh, you attacked your own naval fleet 2 turns ago." Weiss glared at Yang and made an annoyed sound. Juane was still unfazed

"Bring it on, Ice Queen! I'll have you know that I have been told that I am a natural born leader!"

"By who? Your mother?"

"A-and Pyrrha!"

Pyrrha waves from where she is sitting "Hello again!"

Jaune begs with both hands folded together "Come on, let me play your hand for a turn!"

"I'm not trusting you with the good citizens of Vacuo!"

"Why not? You've trusted me with way more important stuff before. I mean, you told us all that Blake is secretly a Fa-"

Pyrrha darts over and slaps a hand over Jaune's mouth, finishing the sentence for him "Fun-loving person, whom we all admire and respect." Jaune laughs nervously as he was save by Pyrrah. Again.

Everyone looks nervously at Blake who looks obviously annoyed that her secret is out. Alexis Face palms and Alejandro pinches the bridge of his nose, mumbling "Imbecile".

"Right. That. Ladies, Gentleman, enjoy your battle." Blake also decides to leave.

"I'm going to go too" She briskly walks away, leaving the rest of her team confused.

* * *

Team RWBY's room.

Blake as she sits with her knees folded to her chest on her bed. She hears voices in her head.

"Brothers of the White Fang, why are you aiding this scum?"

"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together."

"The sounds of battle including slashes, grunts, gunfire, and Torchwick's laughter."

Team RWBY are enter their dorm room. Yang was whining.

"Ugh, we should have never let those two play! "

You're just mad cuz' they beat us in three turns! See, if you had just attacked when I told you none of this would have happened." As they enter, Blake approaches the door to leave.

"Stop." Weiss points at Blake her hand retracts from the door knob. "Lately you've been quiet, antisocial and moody!"

"Uh, have you met Blake?" Ruby elbowed Yang

"Yang, be quiet."

Weiss continued her monologue. "Which I get is kind of your thing, but you've been doing it more than usual! Which quite frankly, is unacceptable! You made a promise to me, to all of us, that you would let us know if something was wrong!" She flips through the air "So, Blake Belladonna, what is wrong!?" She points her finger at Blake again. Weiss is balancing precariously on a chair's back feet. She quickly puts the chair away and returns to stand near the group. Blake takes a deep breath before responding

"I just, I don't understand how everyone can be so calm."

Ruby approaches Blake "You're still thinking about Torchwick?" She nods

"Torchwick, the White Fang, all of it! Something big is happening and no one is doing anything about it!"

Yang also walked over to Blake. "Ozpin told us not to worry. Between the police and the Huntsmen, I'm sure they can handle it." Blake still didn't believe that

"I'm not! They don't know the White Fang like I do!"

Weiss begins speaking again. "Okay, between blowing up nightclubs" She pointed at Yang.  
Stopping thieves." She gestures towards Ruby and Alejandro." Being one of the Best Remnant has to offer" She points at Alexis"and fighting for freedom, I'm sure the three of you think that you're all ready to go out and apprehend these ne'er-do-wells!

"Uh, who?"

"But let me once again be the voice of reason. We're students! We're not ready to handle this sort of situation!"

"Well yeah, but..."

"We're not ready!"

Blake responds to Weiss "And we may never be ready! Our enemies aren't just going to sit around and wait for graduation day." She points towards the door. "They're out there, somewhere, planning their next move, and none of us know what it is, but its coming! Whether we're ready or not!"

Ruby raises her hand and does other gestures, while looking a little like a manic. "Okay! All in favor of becoming the youngest Hunter and Huntresses to single-handedly taking down a corrupt organization conspiring against the Kingdom of Vale... say aye."

Yang pumps her fist enthusiastically and points at Blake "Yes! I love it when you're feisty!"

"Well, I suppose it could be fun."

"I guess so."

"I mean, could be worse"

"None of you said aye…" Everyone's attention turned to Blake again as she spoke

"Alright then, we're in this together!"

Ruby rubs her hands together."Let's hatch a plan!"

"Yeah!"

Ruby gasps as she freaks out. "I left my board game at the library!"

Weiss places her head in her hand "We're doomed."

"I'll be right back!" Ruby slam into someone. "Oo-oof! Oh g-! Sorry. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Emerald offers her a hand "Just watch where you're going."

" Oh, right, sorry" She continues to speak as Emerald helps her to her feet "Um, I'm Ruby! Are you new?"

Emerald steps aside as Cinder approaches her "Visiting from Haven, actually."

Ruby stares for a moment and Cinder stares back.

"Ooh! You're here for the festival! But exchange students have their own dormitory."

Mercury speaks up "I guess we just got turned around."

"Hey, don't worry, it happens all the time." Mercury and Emerald walk past her. "Uh, your building is just east of here."

"Thanks." Cinder walks past Ruby, gesturing in acknowledgement "Maybe we'll see you around."

"Yeah. Maybe!" As the trio as continue to walk away, Ruby waves behind them. "Oh, uh, and welcome to Beacon!"

The redhead didn't notice her evil grin nor glowing eyes as she walked the opposite way


	11. Chapter 11

"We're doomed" Weiss said as she went over to her bed. Yang just scoffed at the heiress, believing she was overreacting.

"Come on Weiss, have some faith in Ruby! She was made team leader for a reason" She just rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, so how are we going to go about doing this?" Blake was still trying to figure that out. Just as she finished her sentence, Ruby came back into the room, holding both her board game in the box and Alejandro's tablet.

"Alex!" He turned to face her from his place on the desk. "You left this in the library." She handed him the tablet before putting away her board game.

"Thanks Ruby." She just gave him a thumbs up from where she was at, trying to make room for the box. While she was doing that, Weiss asked Ruby about her plan.

"So Ruby, do you have a plan about how we should approach the situation at hand?" After forcefully pushing the box back into the closet, she acknowledged Weiss question and contemplated for a second.

"I was thinking of brainstorming some ideas for know, like going undercover into a meeting." Blake perked up. That could work. Weiss just scoffed.

"Really Ruby? Going in undercover? We all can't go at the same time." Blake stopped her as she opened her mouth to speak again.

"That could work. We all don't have to go, only one or two of us. I heard a couple of members talking about when and where the next White Fang meeting would take place." Weiss raised an eyebrow

"Ok, let's assume we go with that plan. Where would we get the masks from?" Blake looked down in shame as she answered.

"I...have two masks we can use." Before Weiss could yell at her, which she was planning to do, Yang spoke up.

"Blake, you know that that's dangerous right? If someone went through your stuff, you could be expelled." She nodded and spoke in a shaky voice

"I know, I just have as a reminder. To never again go down that path.." Yang nodded before embracing the Faunus, who hesitant at first, returned her embrace.

"It's ok Blake. We are here to help you, don't think for a second that we are going to abandon you. Right guys?" Weiss nodded, Ruby also nodded. She noticed how close Ruby was to Weiss, but thought nothing of it. Alexis smiled and nodded as well. Alejandro gave a thumbs up while smiling as well. Blake never felt anything like this before. That people actually cared for her and what she thought.

"Thank You, thank you all for this." They all nodded again, and Ruby noticed the time. It was barely about to be eight o'clock.

"Huh, I could have sworn it was later than that." Everyone looked at the clock and noticed the time "So now what we do?"

"I say we relax for a bit, I mean we do have a lot to do ahead of us."

"I, for once, agree with Yang." The rest agreed with Weiss.

Blake had decided to grab a book and read on her bed, while Yang climbed up to her bed and began listening to something on her scroll. Weiss had decided to grab a seat at the desk and began to over her notes diligently…again. Ruby was on her bunk browsing the internet on her laptop, and Alexis was playing a game on her scroll. Alejandro was also playing a game on his tablet. He was playing something called "Grand Theft Dust: V". He was playing it on the same tablet he played on early with Alexis. Apparently, he was playing online with thirty others. This was demonstrated when a loud curse filled the room from his tablet speakers. As all eyes were on him, he apologized.

"Heh, sorry. I thought I plugged my mic into the controller…my bad." Suddenly, a familiar voice came through the speakers…he still hadn't plugged in his headset.

"Alejandro?" Raising his eyebrows in surprise, he answered.

"Juane? What are you doing here?"

"Playing GTD…what are you doing here?"

"Playing GTD… I didn't know you played'"

"Yeah, growing up with seven sisters, I needed a way to keep a bit of masculinity." Yang burst out laughing after he said that, rolling and falling onto the floor.

"Ohmygod…" She stopped laughing, then resumed, clutching her sides.

"Who was that?" Alejandro couldn't stop the smile from appearing on his face. As he looked around, he noticed he wasn't the only one. Ruby was having a giggle fit on her bunk, while Blake was trying but failing to cover her own laughter. Weiss looked over at him, trying and failing to look composed as she too fell victim to laughter. Alexis, the closet to him, was gently biting her own arm trying to stifle her laughter.

"Nothing. I'm with the rest of my team here in our dorm and Yang found another piss-poor pun on the internet again." He tried as best as he could to remove the laughter from his voice.

"Ah…Wait is Weiss with you?' She stopped laughing as she was the center of attention. Alejandro knew where this was going, but he humored him anyway.

"Yes, she is. May I ask why?"

"Weiss, if you can hear me, I was wondering if you maybe wanted to get some lunch tomorrow." Yang burst out laughing again at his very pathetic attempt to ask someone out vocally through a video game. Weiss told him to mute the microphone somehow.

"Hold up a sec." He connected his headset again before turning the mic off. "What?"

"Tell the blonde idiot I would sooner eat my own weapon and excrete it before I will even consider the idea of even thinking about going out with him" He nodded and unmuted his microphone before unplugging it again, to allow everyone to hear.

"Juane? You still there?"

"Yeah, what did she say?" Trying to gain his composure before he answered, he took some deep breaths.

"I'll just shorten her answer…She said 'No'."

"Aww, why not?"

"I'm going to paraphrase what she said, since she used very big words." Taking the silence as a queue to go on, he "paraphrased"… Everyone was looking at him now, waiting for him to answer. "Basically, she says that you aren't her type and that she would rather eat her own weapon and blah blah blah" Yang started to laugh again before everyone else in the room stared laughing. Thankfully he couldn't here that.

"Really?"

"Yes Juane…"

"Fine, could she at least tell me her type?" He face palmed. As much as he found this funny, the guy just wouldn't take "No" for an answer. Before he could answer, Juane started to talk again.

"Wait, are you her type?" He raised his eyebrows? Why did he just get dragged into this suddenly? Turning back to look at everyone else, everyone was just looking in surprise. Weiss had her head in her hands, and Alexis suddenly didn't seem very happy. Alejandro then gestured for Weiss to go over and set him straight. He got up and allowed her to sit on the chair he was using.

"Juane?" he responded quickly to her voice.

"Yes Snow Angel?" Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose before answering.

"I will not go on a date with you, I don't want to go on a date with you. Stop asking."

"Don't worry, you'll come around." Weiss, deciding that was enough time spent, went back to the desk.

"Look Juane, just stop. She won't change her mind. Jut-"He was stopped as Juane interrupted him.

"I know what this is about! You want her all to yourself!" Weiss and Alexis just looked at him. Yang and Ruby stopped laughing, and Blake went back to reading her book. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he responded to his ludicrous claim

"You imbecile, where did you get that idea from?"

"She prefers to talk to you over me."

"…" Silence passed for a few seconds. Everyone was looking at him, seeing what he would do. Their attention was suddenly directed at the screen when they saw his character get in a car and drive. A couple seconds passed before he parked next to some other online character. Alejandro then controlled his character and blew up the other one. That elicited a response from Juane, who didn't know that Alejandro had killed him.

"Hey man, what's the big idea?"

Alejandro tried to act like he cared "What happened?"

"Some ass killed me while I was parked!"

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Did he do something like this?" He then proceeded to snipe Juane's character.

"Yeah! Wait, is that you?"

"Yes it is, now let me get one thing straight from the start. I don't know what the hell you were thinking saying what you said, just note that it's wrong. Understand?"

"Sure it is…" Juane's character died again…this time a firetruck sprayed him with water.

"HEY! Stop Killing Me!" Turning off the mic for a second he turned his head towards the group and waved his controller around.

"Anyone want a shot at killing him? Weiss? I know you want to, and this is about as close as you'll get to actually being able to do it." She contemplated it for about…half a second before getting up and grabbing the controller. Within seconds she was able to get a hang of it and once he showed her Juane's character, she instantly killed him…Over and Over and Over again. Everyone could here Juane getting irritated as Weiss kept sniping him. Eventually she did get bored of precision and swapped out her sniper for a mini-gun. Seeing as Weiss was getting a little too far into the game after killing his character with a shirt, she offered up anyone else the chance. Weiss felt…lighter…after playing for a bit.

"Wow! That was strangely satisfying. I should try that more often…" She mumbled that last part. The next person to grab it and have a turn at poor Juane was, to everyone surprise, Blake. Getting to grips with the controls quickly she made short work of him and even showed off, Grabbing a helicopter and killing him using a hammer while parachuting.

"Oh Come on! How is that even possible?"

Blake eventually ended her run by killing his character with fireworks…somehow. And passed it on to Yang. She decided to kill him using a gas canister. Not the Fuel inside the canister, but with the actual canister. Ruby took her turn and she was as subtle as a tank…Because she had decided to bring a tank. Showing no mercy, she killed him over and over again. Mainly because she was irritated that he was still trying to win over Weiss. Eventually, after running over a cop car that blew up in his characters face, she stopped and gave the controller to Alexis. Unfortunately, Juane discovered a setting in the Menu that allowed him to be transparent and therefore immune from object that could kill him for the most part.

"HA! Try to kill me now!" Alejandro turned to the group, who were back where they were and asked if he could tell him who was killing him. After getting the nod, he began speaking again.

"Juane, I should let you know that for the past-" he looked at the time, noticing it was ten to ten "hour or so, The rest of my Team has had a shot at killing you at least once." That elicited a groan from Juane.

"Really? Are you saying I was killed multiple times by Girls" Alejandro facepalmed. His team was still here and listening. Meanwhile, in Team JNPR's dorm, Pyrrah and Nora were in his dorm and did not help him in the slightest. Ren decided to ignore Juanes existence. Pyrrahs voice sounded throughout the room as her voice came out of her speakers.

"What was that Juane?" Oh boy, this was going to be good… "I don't think I heard you." He tried to defend himself, but was instantly thrown under the bus.

"He said that girls don't play video games." Yang wasn't offended in the slightest. Though she did want to see what Pyrrah would do to him.

"That's what I thought. Well, Juane is going to get off his video game now. We need to discuss some things with him." Alejandro saw that he got disconnected and he left the game as well. As soon as he turned it off though, he burst out in laughter and was joined by everyone else in the room.

"Alright, I think that was enough of that for today." He went to the bathroom to get ready for bed, and noticed that everyone else had already gotten ready. Shrugging, he closed the door and got changed. About five minutes later, he exited the bathroom and went to bed. Ruby was going to bed as well, jumping from Weiss bed to her own. He noticed how Weiss got stiff when the bed was swinging above her. Eventually it stopped and Ruby gave her goodnights.

"Goodnight everyone"

"Goodnight"

"Night Rubes"

"Night"

"Goodnight"

* * *

Professor Port's Class

Team RWBY is in Professor Ports class, with all of them equally bored out of their minds. Yang and Ruby had fallen asleep, Blake was reading her own book, Alexis was playing on her Scroll, and Alejandro had brought his Tablet and was playing on that. Weiss was patiently waiting out the minute left on her holographic clock displayed from her desk, jealous of how Ruby had fallen asleep somehow. Jaune then slides up next to Weiss and tries to "serenade" her.

"So, Weiss, y'know, uh, I-I was thinking after this, maybe we could go grab a bite to eat? And, uh um, I-I've got two tickets to that new Spruce Willis movie, if you wanna make the trip to Vale. I hear it's awesome… Aaaand maybe after that, we could study together? I mean, you're smart and I'm, uh... Y'know."

Finally, the clock in front of Weiss gives a shrill beep as it changes, and she dismisses it with a wave of her hand.

"And then I— Oh." Port straightens his stance as the students start to leave. "Timed that one wrong, I guess. Well, the stunning conclusion to this story will have to wait. Until next time!"

Jaune watches Weiss as she packs up her Scroll. "Weiss? Did you hear me?"

Weiss answers him without making any eye contact as she walks away

"No, no, no, yes."

Hearing this, he groans and face plants into the desk.

Yang strokes Jaune's hair without even looking. "Nope."

* * *

Team RWBY's Dorm

As they got ready for their mission, The Team decided to forgo their usual combat attire for something else.

Ruby is wearing a long-sleeve, light gray shirt with black belted cuffs near the ends of the sleeves. Over the gray shirt is a black piece of clothing with two vertical lines of red stitching that resembles a cross between a corset and overalls. Along with a red skirt with a large black-colored print of her rose emblem on the side of it, the inside of her skirt being black. She still wears her black stockings and black-and-red boots. A few pieces of metal arranged in an abstract shape are attached to her sleeve on her left shoulder. As usual, she wears a red cape with this outfit. This cape is short, similar to the one she wears with her uniform, but with a scarf as part of the hood.

"Ah, I haven't worn this in sometime. Yang, how are you doing over there?"

"Great!" She was cycling through the ammo on her weapon.

Yang is wearing a collared cream top over a black shirt, and over it is a black article of clothing that consists of a raised collar, a strap across her collar bone, and mid-length sleeves that are gold at the end. Around her neck is a pendant that has a smooth, round, purple gem set in a round piece of metal that has a point coming off the left and right sides and a small oval shape coming from the bottom. She wears a pair of crooked black belts with gold accents across her hips, and a purple piece of fabric with lilac lace around the edges hangs from her left hip. She has a dark gray article of clothing coming down from under her cream top that is either a mini-skirt or part of her black shirt. It has vertical belted straps going down into her thigh-high black stockings, which have her burning heart emblem printed in yellow on the outer side of each leg near the top and a row of four gold pyramid studs above each knee.

Weiss was under Ruby's bed, preparing Myrtenaster. She was wearing a pure white dress with black edging and two columns of four black buttons on the midsection. Similar to her bolero, there is a print of her snowflake emblem on her back, in pale blue this time, rather than white. The inside of the skirt portion of the dress contains black frills. She is also wearing thigh-high, white high-heel boots with frilly, black, thigh-high stockings that come up slightly above the top of her boots.

Alexis was disconnecting a piece of her weapon to make it easier to conceal. Instead of wearing her usually outfit, which consisted of a white top with blue trimming, a blue "combat" skirt, and royal blue boots, she wore a dark blue jacket that extended to the waist with her emblem being on the right breast. Under it she wore her Black Turtle neck short sleeve shirt and she was wearing a pair of dark blue, almost black pants that went down to her calves. She is also wearing dark blue, again almost black, boots that went up and covered the part where the pants cut off. A knock on the door, followed by a voice from the other side startled them.

"Hey! Are you guys done yet? Rolling her eyes, Yang let him in. "Thank You, milady" he said in a sarcastic tone.

Alejandro's outfit for the day/night was the biggest difference from anyone else's. Usually he would wear a Black Champion Sweater with the zipper either all the way up or not zipped up at all with a short sleeve black shirt underneath. His Company logo would usually be on the left breast of the shirt. Either dark faded blue or Black Jeans and a pair of red and black sneakers would finish it off. However, since he would easily be recognized like that, he had to change it completely. He decided to forgo the sweater completely and was only wearing a Short Sleeve Dark Blue shirt with a White Long sleeve, thin shirt that did little to protect him from the cold. Instead of the Short Sleeve having his Company logo, the thin, long sleeve shirt underneath carried the logo in the same spot. He wore a pair of blue jeans and instead of his shoes being red and black, they were white, blue and black but the same design. The Watch Strap for his weapon was changed from the leather one he used, to one made out of the hide of nevermore. Something that is both difficult and expensive to obtain. On his right wrist was a small wristband made out of silicon, and from some angles looked like it had a screen…which it did.

Blake is wearing a white v-neck zip-up shirt that is black along the bottom and has mid-length sleeves. Her emblem is printed in white on the left side of the shirt. She wears black pants that have a vertical gray stripe on the outer side of each leg, and a black belt with them. Attached to the inner side of the belt is a black, somewhat curved, banner-like piece of fabric that hangs from the back and extends forward to her hips. On the underside of this is a thinner, longer, similarly-shaped purple piece of fabric. Her black high-heel boots come halfway up her calves and have a pair of belted straps across them. She still wears her black ribbons on her arms and her black bow over her cat ears. She approaches her bunk as she tightens the ribbons around her wrists.

"I thought that class would never end." Alejandro Nodded in agreement.

"Seriously, one can only play some much 'FIGA 2K' before he gets bored again"

Ruby gets everyone's attention from her bed "Alright, guys, today's the day! The investigation begins!" She happily leaps off her bed and onto the floor, with her arms raised excitedly. She almost lands on Weiss, who is on the bottom bunk and manages to narrowly dodge Ruby.

"I'm glad to see we're taking this so seriously." She said sarcastically.

"Hey, we've got a plan! That's... moderately serious." Said Yang

"Right! Ruby looks around at her teammates. "Everyone remember their roles?" Weiss stands up as the groups attentions shifts to each person as they state their objective.

"You and I will head to the CCT and check the Schnee records for any other Dust robberies or inconsistencies. Seeing as I'm in the family, it shouldn't be a problem." Everyone shifted their Attention towards Blake.

"The White Fang has regular meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members. Alejandro and I will try to get in. If we can get in, hopefully we will be able to find out what they're planning." He nodded in agreement. As Yang started talking, everyone focused on her.

"I have an old friend on the shady side of town that typically knows everything going on in Vale. With the help of my blonde comrade-" she slings her arm over Alexis "getting information out of him shouldn't be too hard."

Everyone looked back to Ruby "Great! We'll meet up tonight near Yang to go over what we found." she pumps her fists "Let's do this!"

* * *

With Ruby and Weiss

As they walked towards the tower, Ruby's curiosity got the better of her.

"Woooow! I forget how big the Transmit tower looks up close!"

"You should see the one in Atlas!"

"That was the first one, right?"

"Correct."

As they walk down the path towards the building, Weiss explains the concept of the CCT System to Ruby.

"Atlas developed the Cross Continental Transmit System to allow the four kingdoms to communicate with one another. It was their gift to the world after the Great War. It is currently be upgraded for future sustainability"

Having heard enough facts for one day, Ruby decided to tease Weiss a bit…by mocking her

"Oooh, look at me! My name's Weiss! I know facts! I'm rich!"

Weiss just rolls her eyes, it didn't annoy her that Ruby did that. She did find it…cute. 'Wait What?!' Knocking herself out of herself out of that stupor, she responded to Ruby.

"Don't be a pest! Besides, the only reason we're here is because you like the tower so much! We could have just as easily made a call from the library!"

"I know, but it's so coool! Ooh, I'm going to take a picture!" She grabs her Scroll from her pocket, but in her excitement she drops it and it starts bouncing along the pavement until it lands at Penny's feet.

"Oh!" She picks up the Scroll and gives it to Ruby "You dropped this".

"Thank You…Wait, Penny?!"

"Uuuh..."

"Where have you been? We haven't seen you since that night at the docks!"

"S-Sorry. I think you're confused." She suddenly hiccups "Uh... I've got to go!" She turns quickly and walks away.

Weiss turns to Ruby "What was that about?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." Ruby starts walking in Penny's direction as she shouts back to Weiss "You go make your call! I'll meet up with you later!"

"Ruby! Wait!" she sighs "Fine."

Meanwhile,Ruby runs up to Penny as she descends the steps until she gets in front of her "Penny! Where have you been? It's been weeks!"

"There seems to be a... misunderstanding."

Ruby was still confused "What?!" As Penny continues to walk away. Ruby slides down the rail next to her. "Penny... Is everything okay?" Penny continues forward without reacting. Ruby grabs her by the arm, stopping her. "Penny, please stop!" she stops and listens. "Look, I don't know what's wrong, but you have to listen to me! Those guys we fought at the docks, we think they're up to something big, something bad! I need you to tell me what happened to you that night! Please... As a friend."

Penny sighs, then glances left and right before she walks over to Ruby's side and leans in close. "It isn't safe to talk here."

Penny looks around suspiciously, much to Ruby's ever growing confusion.

* * *

The Cross Continental Transmit Tower.

Weiss walks through the lobby of the tower with pride, avoiding the central terminal and heading straight for the elevator doors, which slide open automatically and close when she's inside. The voice of the CCT AI is projected from a panel near the door.

"Hello. Welcome to the CCT. How may I help you?"

"I'd like to go to the communications room, please."

"Absolutely! Could you please place your Scroll on the terminal to verify your identity?" Weiss grabs her scroll and follows her directions. "Perfect! Thank you, Miss Schnee."

As the elevator ascends, Weiss' expressions shifts from pleasant to serious. Upon entering the room, four symbols are seen on a computer - twin axes and wreaths, three flying swords pointing down, a spear and shield inside a fragmented circle, and a precise winged shape. Weiss walks up to the front desk where a holographic secretary appears in the seat. Beeps are heard before the projection speaks in a polite manner.

"Welcome to the Beacon Cross Continental Transmit center. How may I help you?"

"I need to make a call to Schnee Company World Headquarters in Atlas."

"Absolutely. If you could head over to Terminal 3, I'll patch you through.".

"Thank you!"

Weiss smiles and nods before walking over to her assigned cubicle-like computer. She sits at her own display, taking a deep, unhappy breath to prepare for the call ahead. The face of a short-haired brunette appears on the monitor with the Schnee snowflake rotating behind her. She does not realize who she is talking to until she looks up.

"Thank you for calling the Atlas- Oh! Miss Schnee! Good afternoon! Would you like me to patch you through to your father? I think your sister Winter might be here as well." Weiss answers with fake enthusiasm and a fake smile.

"No, thank you! I was actually wondering if you could find some files for me. I've compiled a short list."

Weiss takes out her Scroll and places it into a slot on the keyboard. The Operator looks at the data from her side of the screen.

"I see. If you don't mind... what may I ask is this for?"

"School project." Weiss answered simply. The Operator looked at a couple of the documents requested nervously.

"Um... There are some sensitive documents on this list, ma'am."

"Well, then, I'll be sure to treat them with care."

"Right... Very well. The data is being transferred to your Scroll now."

"Wonderful! That will be all, then."

"Are you sure you wouldn't like me to patch you through to your father before you go?"

Weiss loses her smile, but quickly replaces it. "Yes, I'm sure."

"Well, then... Have a nice day!"

The call is ends, Weiss drops her happy act and drops her smile as well.

* * *

Penny is standing alone near a two-story building with patio furniture, looking around nervously when a hand grabs her shoulder and causes her to jump. She turns to see Ruby grinning. Smiling in return, they both began walking. Penny eventually speaks up, finally answering Ruby's question.

"I wish I could help you, Ruby, but I don't know anything about those men."

'Well, what happened to you that night? We were all together, and then you just disappeared! Were you kidnapped?'

"Oh, no! Nothing like that!" She didn't want to confuse or scare Ruby.

"Then where did you go?"

Penny took a breath before answering "I've never been to another kingdom before. My father asked me not to venture out too far, but... You have to understand, my father loves me very much; he just worries a lot."

"Believe me, I know the feeling." She grins at Penny and Penny grins back. "But why not let us know you were okay?"

"I...um…was asked not to talk to you. Or Weiss. Or Blake. Or Yang. Or Alexis. Or Alejandro. Or Anybody, really.

"Was your dad that upset?"

Penny shook her head. "No, it wasn't my father..".

Before she can continue, they both hear the sound of megaphones announcing something, turning around the corner to look at the platform in the center of a plaza where the holographic image of James Ironwood is seen before six AK-130 Androids, who are standing in front of two large metal storage cases with the spear-and-shield emblem on their doors. The holograph addresses the crowd.

"The AK-130 has been a standard security model of Remnant for several years, and they have done a fine job. Wouldn't you agree? Wouldn't you agree?" clapping of the gathered audience causes the drones to take a somewhat jerky bow. "But... the kingdom of Atlas is a kingdom of innovation, and 'fine'... Well, that's just not good enough, is it? Presenting... the Atlesian Knight-200!" the doors to the cases roll up, and six new, bulkier, shinier Robot Soldiers stand at attention, knocking their now-obsolete predecessors down to the applause of the watchers. "Smarter, sleeker, and admittedly, a little less scary." the robots flex and pose to demonstrate. "These models will become active later this year, but they won't be alone! Now, the Atlesian Military has always supported the idea of removing men from the dangers of the battlefield. However, there are still many situations that will undoubtedly require... a human touch."

The last line draws Ruby's attention.

Penny nervously tries to get Ruby's attention. "Ruby..?"

"So, our kingdom's greatest minds, in cooperation with both the Schnee Dust Company and the PNA-PNC Corporation, are proud to introduce... the Atlesian Paladin!" Ironwood's image is replaced with the hologram of a robotic white behemoth, featuring hinged piston legs, large guns for hands, and a rectangular head, standing at least twice as tall as the Knights below it. Only the voice of the man is heard.

"Now, we couldn't have him here for you today, but these mechanized battle suits will be seen defending the borders of our kingdom before the end of the year!"

Ruby was in awe, noting in the back of her mind to Ask Alejandro about this. "Whoa..."

Penny was concerned. "Ruby? Maybe we should go somewhere else."

At the side of the stage, two armored soldiers see Penny, pointing her out and calling in backup. Penny backs away and then breaks into a dead run, which snaps Ruby out of her weapon-awe-induced stupor.

"Penny! Wait! Where are you going?"

Ruby turns to look back at the soldiers chasing after her , and realizing Penny's situation, swiftly follows her in an attempt to catch up down the alley.

"Down here! She went this way!"

Penny and Ruby run across the street with the soldiers following them, though a honking car nearly runs one over. He manages to brace his hands against the hood, which stops the car, and his partner runs along after them

Ruby is still trying to catch up with Penny, cutting down a stack of crates on a flimsy support with her weapon to block the soldiers path. Seeing Penny right ahead of her, Ruby leaps into the air and lands on the alley wall, jumping off it to grab Penny.

"This way!" Ruby grimaces before she taps into her semblance as the two disappear in a flash of red and rose petals. Ruby dashes away as fast as she can while carrying Penny, but she's too heavy, and they crash to the ground, with Ruby falling all the way into the street. She gets up slowly, and in her dazed state doesn't notice the large truck coming up from behind her until the honking is too late of a warning. She stands up just as she's about to be hit, but from out of nowhere, Penny pushes Ruby out of the way and holds her hands out.

In the split second where the two make contact, the ground beneath Penny cracks and crumbles into pieces, and the truck is lifted into the air by the girl's sheer strength. She puts it down, and the driver stares in awe at the crumples in his hood,. He was in awe, just like Ruby was across the street on the sidewalk. With eyes wide, a bit terrified, and uncertain, she calls out.

"Penny..?"

Penny makes sure the driver was alright. "Are you okay?"

He nodded, obviously scared "Uh-huh..."

Penny backs away, looking at Ruby's frightened expression, then at the bystanders murmuring to each other in an attempt to understand what just happened. In her panic, she runs from the Atlas soldiers still chasing her down and bumps into Ruby, knocking the her out of her stupor as she tries to get away again.

"Penny! Come back!"

Penny comes to a stop once she gets out of the alleyway, looking around, deciding where to run next. "Um... Uh..."

Ruby comes up to Penny. "Penny! Please! What is going on?! Why are you running? How did you do that?!"

"I-I can't! Everything's fine!" Penny starts to hiccup with each lie she tells. "I-I don't want to talk about it!" She hiccups again.

"Penny, if you can just tell me what's wrong, I can help you!"

Penny backs up a little from Ruby "No! No, no! You wouldn't understand..".

"Let me try! You can trust me!

Penny finally relents, coming up to Ruby desperately. "You're my friend, right? You promise you're my friend?!"

Ruby responds softly. "I promise."

Penny is silent for a second, then she looks down at her hands. "Ruby... I'm not a real girl."

Penny shows Ruby the toll of stopping the truck that would have killed her: Parts of her palm's skin have ripped away, revealing gray metal underneath. Penny stares sadly at Ruby's face, now completely astounded by her friend's secret as all she can simply say is one word.

"Oh…"

There was a couple of moments of silence before Ruby spoke up again.

"Penny, I-I don't understand..."

Penny begins to explain "Most girls are born, but I was made. With the help of the PNA-PNC, I'm the world's first synthetic person capable of generating an Aura." she turns her head to the side sadly. "I'm not real..."

Ruby takes Penny's hands in her own. "Of course you are. You think just because you've got nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts makes you any less real than me?"

To say Penny was confused was an understatement. "I don't... um... " she leans in a bit closer to Ruby. "You're... taking this extraordinarily well." Ruby just smiles.

"You're not like those things we saw back there." She taps Penny's chest "You've got a heart, and a soul; I can feel it!"

Penny smiles as Ruby made her feel better. "Ooohh... oh Ruby" She grabs Ruby into a hug and shakes her back and forth. "You're the best friend anyone could have!"

"I can see why your father would want to protect such a delicate flower!" Ruby responds through a muffled groan.

Penny lets go Ruby, and is back to her happy self. "Oh, he's very sweet! My father's the one who built me! I'm sure you would love him!"

"Wow. He built you all by himself?"

Penny shook her head. "Almost! He had some help from Mr. Ironwood and some anonymous benefactor at PNA-PNC!"

"The General?! Wait... Is that why those soldiers were after you?"

Penny nods "They like to protect me, too!"

Ruby just scoffs "They don't think you can protect yourself?"

Penny hesitates before responding. "They're not sure if I'm ready yet... One day, it will be my job to save the world, but I still have a lot left to learn. That's why my father let me come to the Vytal Festival. I want to see what it's like in the rest of the world, and test myself in the Tournament."

"Penny, what are you talking about? Save the world from what? We're in a time of peace!"

Penny was confused, she was told otherwise. "That's not what Mr. Ironwood said..." before she could finish, they hear the soldiers approaching.

"Check down here!"

Penny, acting fast, grabs Ruby by the shoulders and lifts her above her head. "You have to hide!" Ruby struggles and screams as she is carried toward the dumpster.

"Penny, wait! What are you doing? You don't have to go with them! I can help you!"

Penny proceeds to throw Ruby in the trash. She lifts the lid so she can still talk to her. "It's okay, Ruby. They're not bad people; I just don't want to get you in trouble. Just promise me you won't tell anyone else my secret. Okay?"

Ruby sighs before nodding "I promise." She lowers her head into the garbage as the lid is put down, but she lifts it a little to peek at the scene outside. One of the soldiers then spots Penny.

"Wait! There she is!"

Penny walks over to them. "Sal-u-tations, officers!"

"Why were you running? And what happened to the other girl?"

"What girl? I was by myself all day!" she hiccups loudly, then smiles.

"You shouldn't cause such a scene."

"Are you okay?"

Penny shows them her injured palms. "Just a scratch."

"Penny, your father isn't going to be happy about this".

"Please, just come with us.

Penny nods and salutes "Yes, sir!"

Penny and the soldiers are heard walking away as Ruby looks on... until a rat screeches from below her feet, causing her to panic and fall, closing the lid on herself.

* * *

Meanwhile, with Yang and Alexis.

In the ruined parts of Vale, the sound of an engine gets closer and closer until Bumblebee pulls into the street and stops, showing none other than Yang behind the handlebars in her matching helmet. Taking off the helmet, she gestures with her thumb to the music playing nearby.

"Come on, my friend's right in here!"

Yang gets off the bike, sitting right behind her was Alexis, whose hair was messed up with a petrified expression of terror on her face.

Alexis responds, albeit sounding dizzy. "Cool..." She hakes her head, somehow perfectly fixing her appearance, and gets off the motorcycle, looking around worriedly. "And where exactly is... here?"

Meanwhile, inside the club, the music is louder inside. A bartender, with the nameplate "Junior"' is behind the bar adjusting his cuffs as his men stock the bottles, carry boxes, and otherwise stand around on the dance floor, until...

"Close the door - she's coming!" He and another Henchman proceed to roll the doors shut and keep them closed.

Junior walks out from the bar, irritated "What are you two idiots doing?!"

The Henchmen shout incoherently until an explosion knocks them down and forces the doors open, allowing a familiar face to walk in through the smoke as the song "I Burn" begins to play.

"Guess who's back!"

Yang continues to smile and pose as guns are pointed in her face with an equal number of angry Henchmen behind them. This doesn't faze her, but she stops and glares at the recording studio where the track is messing up until a frightened bear-headed DJ takes the needle off the record and retreats back under the table.

Alexis appears behind Yang as the Henchmen continue pointing their guns at them. "Yeah, so could you define "friend" for me?"

Junior cuts his way through the crowd of henchmen, and straightens his tie. "Stop, stop! Nobody shoot… Blondie, you're here! ...Why?

Yang points at Junior "You still owe me a drink." She grabs him by the arm and drags him to the bar through the hired guns.

Alexis puts her face in her palm. "How in the hell did I end up agreeing to this?" she lowers her hand to see twins , whose name Melanie and Miltiades Malachite according to their nameplates, standing beside her. "Um…Hello?"

"Hmph! Whatever." They walk away, with their noses in the air. Alexis rolls her eyes before sighing and making her way towards the bar.

* * *

In a Dark Alley with Blake and Alejandro.

Blake's fingers trace three scratch marks on a wall before peeking around its corner and seeing a pair of horned Faunus as they are ushered into a building by a bearded man. She turns to Alejandro, who is next to her.

"This is it."

"Are you sure?" Blake glares at him and starts moving towards the entrance while unfastening her bow. "Alright, Alright, I'll take your word for it."

They both walk inside the building to a hallway, seeing another man telling a young pair "New recruits, keep to the right!" Alejandro was confused about something though, and elected to ask Blake

"I don't get it." Blake hands him a mask. "If you believe what you're doing is right, why hide who you are?"

Blake takes a breath before answering "The masks are a symbol. Humanity wanted to make monsters out of us, so we chose to don the faces of monsters."

Alejandro raises his brows in surprise. "Grimm masks…was not expecting that... that is kind of dark."

"So was the guy who started it." She puts her mask on and walks on.

Alejandro rolls his eyes before putting on his mask. "Always sunshine, rainbows and unicorns with you..." As they walk inside, the man at the door looks at him suspiciously before allowing him to go inside.

Inside, new recruits to the White Fang are moving in a line to the side of the stage, a mere few dozen compared to the hundreds of white-vested, black-hooded soldiers to their left and up above in the balconies. While Blake and Alejandro look around, a fully-masked man with tattoos standing starts speaking before the large sheet emblazoned with the bloody wolf and claw marks.

"Thank you all for coming. For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours! I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for, for so long!"

As the curtain drops, None other than Roman Torchwick steps out of the darkness to the jeers of everyone there as he waved in a mocking fashion He began addressing everyone.

"Thank you, thank you!" As he speaks, a pink and brown haired and eyed girl walks out from back stage "Please, hold your applause!" An Antler Faunus points at Roman from her place, which is right in front of Blake and Sun

"What's a human doing here?!"

'I'm glad you asked, 'Deerie'! Now, I'll be the first to admit, humans... are the worst." He salutes as an example. "Case in point. So, I understand why you would like to see us all locked away, or, better yet, killed!"

Alejandro leans over to Blake and whispers a bit harshly. "So, is he going somewhere with this? Because I know damn well I didn't sign up to listen to his crap." Roman continues speaking.

"But, before the claws come out, I'd like to mention the fact that you and I all have a common enemy: the ones in control, the people pulling the strings, the dirty, rotten humans that run our kingdoms!" The crowd changes their opinions of him and they start agreeing with him. "Government, military, even the schools: they're all to blame for your lot in life!" He lets the crowd cheer. Both Blake and Alejandro look at each other before looking back. "And they're all pests that need to be dealt with! Fortunately, I'm the best exterminator around... No offense to any rodents in the room."

With a snap of the fingers, the curtain falls, and everyone applauds at the sight of the Atlesian Paladin-290, the mark of the White Fang painted on its shoulders where both the Schnee Dust Company and the PNA logos would normally be. Alejandro instantly recognizes it and grabs his face in his hand.

"God fucking damnit...How did he get that?"

Blake hears him. "How did he get that?"

"I…have no idea."

Roman begins to explain what it is to those who don't know. "As some of you might have heard, this right here..." He taps the giant mech "…is Atlas' newest defense against all the scary things in the world. Made by the two Largest Companies in the world. And thanks to my 'employer', we've managed to snag a few before they, uh, 'hit the shelves.' Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the southeast. If you'd rather stay within the city, that's fine... But if you're truly ready to fight for what you believe in, this is the arsenal I can provide you. Any questions?' Instead of answering, the place roars in applause.

Blake get Alejandro's attention. "We should get out of here." Before they could however, a White Fang lieutenant spoke up.

"Will all new recruits, please come forward!"

As the line surges forward with the two having to follow, Alejandro voices his opinion on the situation at hand "Well Shit…"

* * *

Back at the Club, Junior puts down his glass as he sits behind the bar separating him from his very attractive interrogator and her very attractive assistant.

"I don't know!"

"How can you not know?"

"I haven't talked to him! I haven't even seen him since the night you first came in here. He paid up front, I lent him my men, and none of them ever. Came. Back."

Alexis, who is standing next to Yang, raises a question of her own. "Did he say where they were going to go?"

Junior takes a long pause, his patience thinning. "What kind of stupid question is that? They never came back!" He directs his attention to Yang "Who is she?"

"Don't worry about her; worry about me if I don't find out what I want!"

Junior rubs his temples, feeling the inevitable migraine that is about to hit him. "I already told you everything! Torchwick hired my boys, and I guess he wasn't happy with them" He shouts this at his own men, "which is something I can relate to!" they grumble and walk away in response.

Yang turns away and walks towards the exit. "Come on Lex"

"We get everything we need?"

"Well, we got everything we can. Hopefully the rest of the team is having better luck."

* * *

The White Fang is still cheering loudly as the recruits are marching to the stage, with Blake and Alejandro having no choice but to follow along.

He whispers to Blake "What are we going to do?!"

"I'm thinking..."

Alejandro turns his attention to the stage, watching Roman lean on the robot smoking his cigar and laughing with the girl beside him before he focuses in on the two, frowning.

"He sees us..." He tries not to look towards Torchwick, Blake notices the electrical box on the wall.

"He can't see in the dark." Alejandro turns towards the box in question. Realizing what Blake was going to do, he twists the Bezel on his watch.

"Give me a second" It then hit Blake, Alejandro is also a human. He wouldn't be able to see in the dark either. Noticing that she was hesitating, he got her attention.

"OK, go for it."

"What about you?" He raised his eyebrow in surprise.

"What about me?"

"You aren't a Faunus, you won't be able to see in the dark either." He shook his head.

"I'll be fine, just go for broke and do it. I'll follow you." That in turn caused Blake to raise an eyebrow.

"How?" He just chuckled before answering.

"Dark Sorcery." He turned and noticed Torchwick quickly coming down the stage. "Hurry!"

With that, Blake unsheathes her weapon, transforms it into a pistol, and shoots at the box, making the lights go out for the whole building to go dark. Roman yells at the White Fang soldiers to stop them.

"Don't let them get away!"

"Alejandro! The window!"

"Got it!"

"Stop them!"

The windows was reinforced, so with his weapon active, he blasts the reinforced Window, allowing them both to get out. Roman was getting in and starting up the AP-290

They both jump through the open window and start running as fast as they can. Behind them, the paladin crashes through the wall of the building, chasing the two of them. Blake leaps off of a car and Alejandro, with the help of his shoes, boost jumps and they both manage to get on the roof. The Paladin follows them on the street as Blake and Alejandro run, jump, flip and Boost Jump from rooftop to rooftop. Alejandro, who boosts jumps onto the next rooftop, tells Blake to call for Backup,

"Blake, I think now is the best time to call for backup!"

"On it!" She grabs her Scroll and opens a conference call to the others before she puts it to her ear, all while she continues to jump.

Weiss is seen leaving the Cross Continental Transmit Tower's elevator when she her own Scroll starts to ring. She answers and listens to Blake's distress call.

"Everyone! If you can hear me, we need back-" She is cut off by Alejandro in the background

"HEEEELLLLP! THE PALADIN IS GOING TO KILL US!"

Weiss rolls her eyes and starts running out the door, a little smile on her face as she does so.

Ruby is still beside the dumpster, which she boarded up to keep the rat imprisoned, staring at her Scroll.

"Big Paladin is on our ass! And it's big! Really big!"

Ruby was excited when she heard that. "Oh, I am not missing this!" she then runs off to join the fight.

Yang is back on the motorcycle in her helmet and sunglasses with Alexis looking at the Scroll in her hand over her shoulder.

"Torchwick is in it! He's apparently stolen it somehow and is controlling it!

"Where are-?" She was interrupted by Alexis, who tells her to be quiet. Right on cue, behind them, they see Blake and Alejandro running through the street with the Paladin hot on their heels before they all disappear. As they pass by Alejandro yells, and it's heard both in person and on the scroll.

"HURRYYYY!"

Putting the Scroll away, she quickly circles her motorcycle around and drives off to follow them.

Blake and Alejandro somehow end up on the highways, jumping onto the busy freeway and continuing their escape by hopping and Boost Jumping on cars. Meanwhile, the Paladin follows them by pushing vehicles out of the way. Alejandro pauses to look at their pursuer's path of before jumping onto more cars, irritating Roman, whose face surrounded by blue holographic screens.

Yang and Alexis are able to follow the mech on Yang's Motorcycle, coming up next to it as it runs.

"Lex, We've gotta slow it down!"

"On it Yang!"

Alexis reaches for the second part of her weapon in her back pocket, but Roman notices them on his sensors and crashes into a multitude of cars with the Paladin, sending them flying towards the duo on the bike.

"Hold on!"

"Wuh-oh sh-..."

Yang swerves, leaning her bike to the side in avoidance of flying debris while Alexis searches for that second piece. Once they are back on two wheels again, Alexis finds that second piece and connects it to the weapon on her arm and activates it, the center disk glows blue as the arm connecting two separate blades extends. The second piece was the smaller blade on the front part of the arm holding them together. Once active, Alexis flips up a blue sight and small handle with a trigger extends from the wrist section. She aims and holds the trigger on the handle as sparks start flying, and fires several bolts of blue electricity at the Paladin, causing Roman to grimace from the attacks.

Switching strategies, Alexis flips down the sight and flicks her wrist gently, allowing the second blade to extend completely. She then jumps from Yang's bike as the Blade molded into a very sharp point drives it into the top of the Paladin. Alejandro and Blake pause in their car-hopping to look back. He notices Alexis trying to jam her weapon into the vulnerable part of the paladin,

"Alexis, hang on!"

Alexis is trying her best, but the mech keeps bucking and threatens to eject her. Turning the Bezel on his watch twice, Alejandro begins to glow an eerie Blue, before Boost Jumping twice towards the Paladin. As he dashes in mid jump, he then kicks the paladin twice, the first creats an arc, while the second sends the arc into the paladin, which explodes on contact with it, while at the same time allowing him to jump onto it. Roman finally turns enough to cause Alejandro to lose his balance and fall off, but was saved when Alexis grabs him by the arm and pulls him back up.

As Blake looks on from her spot, she hears Weiss' voice from her Scroll

"Blake! I'm in position!"

Weiss jumps and twirls over highway above them and lands in the middle of the road, holding her weapon at an approaching Roman. He smiles as his robot charges at, but Weiss spins and plunges her blade into the ground, summoning a circle of ice across the pavement that causes the Paladin to slip and actually fly over the young Heiress/Huntress-in-training, falling off the ramp and ejecting Alejandro and Alexis, and landing further down before Ruby, already having her Crescent Rose out in scythe form.

The Paladin stands back up, and three of the six members Team RWBY fall beside their leader to take up positions. A couple seconds later, Alexis lands on her hands before pushing herself upright and next to the rest of them. Immediately after, Alejandro is seen descending slowly as he too lands on his feet next to his team. Roman chuckles, moving the robot slowly towards them.

"Freezer Burn!"

Ruby, Blake, Alexis and Alejandro all jump back out of the way as Weiss summons another ice-circle, but backs out of Yang's way when she jumps into the air and hits the epicenter with her weapon, Ember Celica, creating a wave of mist that surrounds Roman. Immediately, the Paladin activates its laser sensors to make up for the lost sight, but it barely sees the afterimage of Blake and narrowly misses the dashing Yang. A gun manages to fire at the area between Blake and Yang, but out from the blast comes Ruby, who slashes the metal with her blade, causing it to falter.

"Checkmate! Immediately after, Corporate Takeover!"

Blake and Weiss go in first this time, each of going for the feet until Weiss jumps up and stabs a sensor before leaping off of a white glyph. Roman lifts the Paladin's foot to crush Blake, but Weiss summons another glyph under her teammate to launch her backwards before the crushing blow can land. Roman growls and fires off the missiles, but Weiss and Blake flip backwards as the explosions merely hit where they were.

Weiss jumps up too high, and Roman fires a double energy blast at her. Her weapon, Myrtenaster, absorbs the damage, but Weiss is thrown back, so she casts a beam of light from her weapon to the ground under Alejandro this time, forming a yellow clockwork circle that's he absorbs. Once he absorbs, a small notification is received from the Weapon on his wrist. "Clockwork Orange Online" he smirks and begins to let lose a series of kicks and slashes, all of which are blue and each hitting every Torchwick launched missile with ease. He finishes it off with the same slash kick combo he did on the freeway as the missile explodes behind him.

Ruby then runs into the fray "Ladybug!"

Ruby shoots herself forward and cuts at the robot's legs, then turns as Blake aims herself at the giant's feet as well. They both dash forward and attack at the same time, circling each other around the Paladin with each strike until they both launch themselves into the air and come down together on the shoulder, cutting off the left arm entirely.

"Undisputedly A&A!"

Both Alexis and Alejandro run towards the slowly failing Paladin. Alejandro slides under and performs another one of his slash kick three hit combination, but instead of boosting himself up, Alexis jumps at the right time and he boosts her up instead, allowing her to land an important slash onto the front of the mech, taking out a couple of it's lasers and the camera that allows Roman to see outside. They back off as Yang starts running towards it.

Yang doesn't waste a second, jumping onto the Paladin's back and punching the top with fiery shotgun blasts. Roman is knocked around in the cabin, but seeing as he can't reach her with his remaining mechanical arm, he runs backwards through two columns and leaves her embedded in a third before backing away and turning towards her. Just as she is falling down, the working arm extends a closed fist, punches her, sending her flying through the columns. Though she doesn't get up, which worry's Blake

"Yang!"

Ruby begins explaining Yang's semblance "Don't worry! With each hit she gets stronger, and she uses that energy to fight back! That's what makes her special."

Yang slowly gets back on her feet, hair burning a brilliant white as she clenches her fists. Sensing victory, Roman throws a punch, but Yang catches it in her own hand and, with eyes red with rage, smashes the second arm, obliterating it under her force.

Getting desperate with his armless robot, Roman immediately kicks Yang to the side, but as she passes her sister and teammates...

"Bumblebee!"

Blake throws her Gambol Shroud out for Yang to catch while flying, and the Faunus uses the momentum to swing the glowing girl around for a final hit to the robot. Roman, however, steps out of the way just in time to avoid complete destruction.

"We have to slow it down!"

"And how do you propose we do that?"

Ruby thinks for a second. "White Rose!"

Twirling their weapons so they both point at Roman, Weiss creates a series of glyphs in front of Crescent Rose's barrel, and a single shot through the circles creates a spiral of energy that creates large icicles upon hitting the Paladin. Ruby continues to shoot as Weiss freezes the fire, and as the ice completely envelops the robot's body, Blake swings Yang around in a circle one more time, this time Yang grabs Alejandro's arm on the way back. With a nod, he understands the plan. With Roman unable to move, Yang lets go and he dashes with the added momentum and the Paladin is hit by the speed and power of both Yang and Alejandro's fists, sending it into the air before crashing down in a hundred pieces and ejected the defeated criminal. Roman gets up, slightly dazed but unharmed, as he inspects the damage while brushing himself off.

"Just got this thing cleaned..."

He looks up just in time to see Yang, still burning with her absorbed power, fire a single shot at him, but he's saved at the last moment when the pink and brown haired girl from the meeting drops in front of him and merely opens her pink umbrella, deflecting the blast entirely. She hangs the weapon over her shoulder as Roman addresses them.

"Ladies, Ice Queen..."

"Hey!"

"Boss Man…"

"Piss Off!"

"Always a pleasure! Neo, if you would..."

Neo curtsies her enemies with a bow. But Yang…being Yang, will have none of it and charges forward with fists raised to strike... only to break their image as if made out of a mirror and turn just in time to see them escape in an Airship. The rest of team RWBY runs up to Yang's side, who has now cooled down. Yang was the first to speak.

"So I guess he got a new henchman..." Weiss decides that she was a comedian and cracks a pun.

"Yeah, I guess she really made our plans... fall apart!"

Weiss smiles, Ruby giggles, Blake starts walking away, Alexis just lowers her eyelids in a "Are you serious" Fashion, Alejandro raises his eyebrows in surprise and Yang just addresses Weiss's pun.

"No. Just... no."

Weiss gets upset. "What- But, you do it!"

"There's a time and a place for jokes."

"Was this not it?"

"No, it just wasn't very good." She then proceeds to follow Blake.

Weiss begins walking away with her teammates. "Well, at least I'm trying!" Alejandro comes to Weiss aid.

"That's true Yang, and it wasn't that bad. That was better than the majority of your puns anyway" Weiss beams at his compliment. "I rate it…five out of ten." Weiss drops her smile and is irritated again.

"What do you mean a five out of ten?! You said that it was better than most of Yang's puns!" She crosses her arms and pouts. Ruby sees this, blushes, and turns away. Trying to ignore the fluttery feeling in her chest.

"That's true, I did. But saying that is kind of saying that you are superior to a Five year old…" Yang responds indignantly

"Hey!"

"Like I was saying, it's kind of like showing your superiority to a five year old. Obviously you know that you're better, but it isn't worth much." Weiss nodded but was still pouting, much to Ruby's dismay as she is still blushing furiously. It subsides as something hits her.

"Um, guys…" They turn to look at her "How are we getting back?"

They all groaned in response.


	12. Chapter 12

Team RWBY walked into their dorm. It wasn't that late surprisingly. It was only 11:25 at night. As they were walking in, the sounds of a complaining Weiss was what they were hearing. More specifically, that was being directed to the girl in red and the boy in blue.

"I cannot believe we stopped so you two could go to that store and stock up on junk food!" Ruby looked at Weiss with the boxes of cookies in her hands. She couldn't stop herself from buying the entire store's worth of chocolate chip cookies.

"But Weeeiiisss, they're soooo good! Plus they were on sale! I couldn't pass that up!" She proceeded to start putting away her items around the dorm. Weiss just rolled her. She then turned her attention to the other person who joined her in the act buying the stores supply of junk food.

"And you Alejandro, I didn't expect something like this out of you!" He was barely walking into the dorm, huffing and puffing as the bags around his body were full. Setting all of them down, he cleaned himself off.

"Hey, I didn't expect to see these chips in the store! These are the best chips in the history of the world!" He took one out and pointed to it, trying to justify his actions. The chips in question were the spiciest chips made on Remnant. The top half of the bag was orange while the bottom half was black, with the words "XXTRA HOT" written on it.

"Alex, we know those won't last more than a week at most." Said Yang. She was helping Ruby put away her never ending supply of cookies. He just rolled his eyes. She was partly right however, those chips are way too good to not eat.

"Of course they won't, you eat them too."

"Of course I eat them too, how do you think I'm always sooo…hot….eh? eh?" Everyone just groaned and Alejandro threw Yang a bag of chips.

"Shut up, take that bag, and don't disrespect the chips by making puns." She nodded before putting them away.

"Look, I'll make sure that Ruby doesn't eat herself into a sugary coma" Ruby whined, but Weiss ignored it "Alexis, can you make sure that HE" he pointed to Alejandro, who was currently trying to stuff one last bag into a drawer and gave up "doesn't eat himself to a very spicy death?"

"Weiss, I appreciate your concern, I'll be fine. You're just worrying about nothing." Then he remembered something from before and a smug grin appeared on his face "Ohhhh, is it about that one time you ate a bag of the-"

"Shut it, we agreed never to speak about it!" Weiss was blushing furiously.

"Don't worry Weiss, I'll keep an eye on him" she took the bag he left in the counter, much to his dismay.

"Hey! I don't need anyone to keep an eye on me! I can do that on my own thank-you-very-much!" Yang had a grin on her face.

"Like that time when you were seven and ate all the habanero sauce? And was screaming and looking for water, not knowing and finding out the hard way that water makes it worse?" Everyone was looking at him while he glared at Yang. Both Yang and Ruby burst into a small giggle fit while Alexis was curious and wanted to know more about that.

"What happened?" Jackpot! All those times he was embarrassed by Alex, now he could get him back! Brilliant! Clearing her throat, she began to tell the story.

"Well-"

"Nothing important happened! I just ate a bit more spicy food than what I could handle. That's all!" Alex tried to cover it up, but obviously no one was going to buy it.

"Like I was saying-" he gave up and put his head in his hands in embarrassment. He knew that stopping Yang would be like trying to stop a bullet train with a Water Bottle. Accepting his fate, he sat down. Everyone else grabbed a seat as well. Blake was on her bunk and Ruby was sitting next to Weiss. Alexis had grabbed a chair and sat closer to Alejandro. Once everyone had taken a seat. Yang continued her story.

"I was about eight, Alex was seven, and Ruby was six. Uncle Qrow and I were making some food, he had made some habanero sauce and had placed it in a small bowl on the counter. Then he comes in" she points to him"asking for something to eat. Qrow told him that he could take the bowl on the counter near the sink. He took the wrong one, and once we noticed it was gone we heard screaming coming from the living room. Ruby was confused and a little scared because she didn't know what was happening. He drank water, but that just made it worse. Luckily, our Uncle knew what to do so he gave him a glass of milk. To this day we still occasionally make fun of him for that…Good times, Good times…"

Alexis was trying to hold back a fit of laughter, Ruby was laughing, Blake and Weiss had the beginning of a smile forming, and Yang was just grinning. The Star of the story, Alejandro, was not amused and crossed his arms in a pout.

"Come on, it wasn't that bad… Right?" Alexis tried but failed to comfort him while trying to stop the bouts of laughter. He just 'hmphed' and turned away.

"Says you, the bathroom and my rectum would like to have a word with you…" That made her full on burst into laughter. He just rolled his eye and dropped the act, smiling as the rest of the group laughed. "Alright, now that you told everyone about that, I guess now is my turn. Hmmmm…where to start. I know! When she was eight sh-"a pillow abruptly stopped him.

"There is no need for them to know…" Looking at everyone else, she smiled sheepishly "It's nothing, I swear."

"Don't worry Yang, they will find out... One way or another…Anyway, I think we should catch some shut eye, tomorrow we get to spar against people! Finally!" Everyone nodded in agreement and got ready for bed.

* * *

Glynda Goodwitch's Class.

"Alright, today we shall have our first sparring matches. Obviously not everyone will be able to spar today, but hopefully you will be able to get an idea of your opponent's style." Everyone was sitting in the Auditorium, which had been accommodated into a battle arena.

The 'Field of Battle' was a perfect circle. It is eighty yards in length and forty yards wide at its most center point and the seating was made so that it went around the 'Field of Battle'. Instead of having walls, like an IHA sanctioned "Field of War", there was a white line that went around the arena, signifying the out of bounds zone. Due to the fact that this is an indoor Arena, this was as big as it could be. However, it is still one of the largest in the Kingdom of Vytal, with the Olympiakos Arena surpassing it and the Benefactor Super Kingdome being the largest indoor "arena", despite the fact that the IHA recognizes it as a stadium due to its layout. This was where most of the qualifying matches would take place.

Team RWBY was sitting next to Team JNPR, the both of them had taken up an entire row of seats. Ruby was positively giddy, wanting this to start already. Glynda was setting up a system in order to select the combatants that will spar first.

"Alright, let so who will start us off." Tapping some things into her scroll, the screen above her started displaying everyone's name and emblem. It kept going for a few seconds before stopping at an emblem with three letters "Ah, one of our newest students. Mr. Rojo if you could please get changed for battle." The man in question was preoccupied with his game to notice, but an already irate Alexis let him know. She grabbed his phone and slammed it onto the table in front of him.

"Hey, the hell is your problem?!" She just glared at him

"You're up to spar…" she pointed to the front. He sighed and got up, thanking her on the way down. She just rolled her eyes. She was having a mood today because today was the day that Mother Nature decided to grace her with a present…a painful one. Alexis had been having cramps all day, and that was combined with a migraine that was coming as well.

"And her opponent…" Alexis' attention was diverted down to the, screen above was shuffling through everyone before it landed on someone. Another first year student. Glynda adjusted her glasses before announcing her opponent. "And his opponent, Natalie Gonzalez!" The person all got up and went to the 'Field', being already in her combat attire. She stood in the center of the Arena, waiting for him to come out. Suddenly the screen above the Field blacked out, before displaying the 'PNA-PNC' emblem, and Music* began to play. One minute and fifty seconds into the song, Alejandro came out of the side entrance from the locker room and made his way towards the BattleField. Climbing up the stairs, he was in and made his way to the center where his opponent was. He extend his hand towards her, confusing her for a second. Blinking for a second, she took it and he shook it.

"Good Luck, may the better person win." She just smirked.

"Oh, I plan too." He chuckled at her brashness.

"Huh, a bit of arrogance I see? Well, I am going to have to do something about that…" She just rolled her eyes, still having a smirk on her face.

"Alright you two, standard IHA 'FairFight' rules…and no direct blows to the groin." She mumbled something about 'not needing that to happen again' "Alright, are you two ready?" They both nodded and went to their respective side of the Battle Arena. Glynda set up the Heads Up Display on the big screen above the Field and that showed both a small portrait of the combatants, their emblem directly underneath them, and their Aura which was a very large vertical bar that was full at the moment for both combatants.

"…Begin!"

As soon as the match began, a twenty minute timer began to count down. Natalie extended her weapon, which was a short Swiss Voulge that had two barrels at the bottom, meaning it was also a sawed off double barrel shotgun. The Blade had a Red Dust Crystal in the dead center of the blade, bud had been molded to sit flush.

Alejandro meanwhile had activated his weapon, the bezel of his watch began to spin and it vibrated twice to signifying that it was running at full capacity and ready to go to work. Instantly however, his Aura bar dropped a little, surprising Glynda and Everyone watching. He also had another problem…Range. Obviously, he needed something that could reach farther than his current weapon could…since its range was about as far as he could spit. So he brought a 'companion' weapon... Once both their weapons were up and ready, the names of their weapons popped up on the screen, just below their names. Natalie's Weapon was called "The Fiery Delicacy".

Meanwhile, Alejandro's first weapon showed up. Unfortunately it confused almost everyone who was watching.

"Project Des Voltsgalph X? What time of name is that?" Ruby asked Weiss, who just shrugged.

"I don't know Ruby, everyone has different names for their weapons. But this seems to be just a codename or something. I was expecting him to name it something brash, Like the "Stinger's Wrath, or Satan's hell path" or something." Her attention went back to the screen as Alejandro cracked his knuckles, and a third weapon name showed up on the screen.

"Temp Proj. Bison 115?" Ruby was even more lost and once she read the second name, she just accepted that fact. "Project Model M: Type C? What is this jargon? He really needs to work on his naming schemes." Weiss was also confused, there were three weapons on screen but two in his possession.

"Why does he only have two weapons, but the HUD shows three?" Her question was answered as soon as he pulled something from his back. "Alright, I guess that answers my question…"

Dubbed 'Project Model M: Type C' by classified PNA-PNC documents, it was a simple lever action shotgun. The ammunition used varied from live rounds, to combat training paint rounds, to kinetic rounds used by Yang's weapon, to really anything that could be fit into a shotgun shell. At the moment it was fitted with Kinetic 'Type C' Ammo. Originally it had a long Barrel, similar to a Rifle, but it had been cut down to about eighteen inches, a full foot and two inches from its original twenty eight inches. The butt had been cut off as well, but was retro fitted in order to allow to allow for modular customization…and it was also another weapon, but it had no name come up.

Alexis, despite the migraine, was paying attention to fight. She hadn't seen how he fights in combat, so it was an opportunity to see. She could also use this to come up with way to improve her style as well as find ways to work together…

Natalie had gone on the offensive, running towards Alejandro with weapon ready to strike. As soon as she began to swing, he disappeared. She turned around, looking for him when she heard a sound, similar to a can of compressed air being used. She turned around and received a kick that sent her around midfield. Quickly getting up, she was as confused as everyone watching from the stands.

"Did he just…" Yang just nodded at Blake.

"Well, that something new…"

Alejandro was in his modified boxer stance, waiting for his opponent to make a move. Natalie flipped her weapon, exposing the bottom and firing both barrels at once. Alejandro got his weapon and was able to spin it, blocking both shots. He then fired his gun, which forced her to go on the defensive. As soon as he fired off his last shot, he ran towards her, detached the butt, and was able to mold it and fitted it to a hole underneath the barrel. It now looked like a police baton with the grip where the butt was now having an angular shape. Gripping it in his left hand, his watch was able to reinforce it. He landed a few shots on her, but she was able to block some. He miscalculated where she was going to land when dodging and she took advantage, sending him back with a hit from her 'Fiery Delicacy'. She used the flush dust crystal to multiply the damage of her weapon.

For about fifteen minutes, the fight was a back and forth affair. The spectators were actually quite entertained. Ruby was watching wide eyed as his weapons could be more than one thing at any given time. Alexis was watching like a hawk, her pain having apparently subsided. Blake, Yang and Weiss were just watching. Occasionally commentating.

Meanwhile, both opponents were a bit spent. Their Aura was in the orange zone going towards the red. Natalie having the slight advantage. However, she was being a little bit cocky. Dancing around occasionally similar to how a boxer would taunt his opponent. And that would cost her. Dashing forward, she was able to side step the obvious attempt at a shoulder check, but he performed a back flip and boosted. He landed next to her and he performed his rising kick maneuver, sending her into the air. He then boosted upward and before performing the same move again and sending her even high. Since his boost had been able to cool down so he was able to boost up again and this time, he positioned himself couple feet above her and performed a front flip, his right leg landing on her abdomen and sending her straight into the ground and out of the BattleArena. Her Aura bar took a huge drain and Glynda called the end of the match and walked towards the winner. Natalie groaned from her place on the ground, five feet from the Out-of-Bounds zone.

"The Winner of the bout, Mr. Alejandro Rojo. Congratulaions. No Doubt I have full confidence that you will qualify for the Combat Tournament with ease." He nodded and went over to his opponent, who was sitting up and clutching her abdomen.

"You alright?" She gave the hand gesture 'so-so' "I knocked the wind out of you?" She nodded in confirmation. He extended his hand, which confused her for a second.

"Uh…" He raised an eyebrow.

"Do you want some help getting up? Or do you prefer sitting on the ground?" She shook took her head and took his hand. He pulled her up to her feet and patted her shoulder. "Good Match. Though try to at least lay off the arrogance. It would have helped you." She just smiled sheepishly.

"Heh, sorry about that. It's just part of my style."

"It's fine, no offense taken." She nodded. He shook her hand before releasing it and walking towards the Professor. He extended his hand towards her as well, which in return he received a raised eyebrow. He shrugged. Still confused, she tool his hand and shook it. Giving a single nod, he walked back towards the locker room to get a change of clothes. Meanwhile, Glynda went to set up another match.

Meanwhile, Alejandro had changed and was going back to take a seat with the rest of his team. He had removed the butt/handle and he had taken off his watch. The Shotgun was on his back but he put it on the table with the rest of his weapons.

"Why is everything dissembled?" asked Yang.

"Well, the moldable butt/gun kind of is stuck in this position, so that has to be thrown away. The shotgun is fine but I need to load it, and the watch is overheating." He pointed to the device in question, which was showing an error on the display.

"I thought you ironed out the overheating problems when you made the second version of it." Asked Ruby. He rubbed his head sheepishly.

"Well…I did. How? I used very low power components. I think you remember when the second prototype locked up completely at Signal during my match with that kid with the spikey orange hair." She nodded "Well, not soon after, I developed this while I was in Atlas… The climate did help tremendously in keeping it cool. So I stuck some of the best parts I could manufacture into this small form factor…Unfortunately, we aren't in Atlas….So…Yeah."

"How did this not happen during our fight with Torchwick?" Weiss asked.

He just shrugged. Alexis touched the bottom metal part where it lays it on the wrist.

"Holy crap that's hot." He just nodded.

"Yeah…" Glynda got everyone's attention once again.

"Ok, up first, Team CRDL!" The four of them walked down the aisle and made their way to the Center of the Field. "Their Opponent, Ms. Pyrrah Nikos!" Team RWBY and JNPR all looked at her, while she just looked on, wide eyed. Getting over her initial shock, she got up and made her way to change. A couple minutes later, she came out and waited for the match to begin.

"Begin!"

In a Span of about five minutes, Pyrrah was able to take down every member of Team CRDL. She ended the very one-sided fight by grabbing an already airborne Cardin by the neck with Milo, and slamming him head first into the ground.

Glynda approaches from behind Cardin who clutches his ribs.

"And that's the match."

"Lucky shot." Cardin then collapses.

"Well done, Miss Nikos. You, along with Mr. Rojo, should have no problem qualifying for the tournament."

Pyrrha nodded "Thank you, professor."

Glynda taps her scroll "Alright, now I know that's a tough act to follow, but we have time for one more sparring match." She looks around at the observing students. "Any volunteers? Ms. Belladonna?" Blake slams her book shut and stares wide-eyed at Glynda. "You've been rather docile for the past few classes. Why don't you –"Mercury raises his hand.

"I'll do it."

"Mercury, is it? Well, let's find you an opponent."

"Actually, I wanna fight... her." he points to Pyrrha.

"Me?"

"I'm afraid Miss Nikos has just finished the match. I recommend you choose another partner."

"No, it's fine! I'd be happy to oblige."

Mercury struts into the arena, visibly sizing up Pyrrha. Their spar begins, he makes the first attack and is knocked down. Recovering quickly, he deflects an attack and begins trading blows with Pyrrha until she knocks him back with her shield.

Ruby turns toward Emerald, who is sitting behind her.

"Hey, your friend's doing pretty well."

Emerald gives a fake smile and then rolls her eyes as Ruby turns her back.

Mercury unleashes a series of powerful strikes. Pyrrha allows his kick to slam against her forearm before Mercury manages to disarm her, a kick impaling her blade into the ground. Pyrrha uses her Semblance to redirect the direction of Mercury's next kick. As she charges him with her shield, he shoots off of it and turns his back to her. Pyrrha tries to rush him again.

"I forfeit."

Pyrrha almost stumbles as she stops beside him.

"You... don't even want to try?"

"What's the point? You're a world-renowned fighter. We're obviously leagues apart."

Glynda steps in. "In that case... Pyrrha Nikos is the victor of the match... again."

Emerald smirks. Mercury sneers smugly. Pyrrha has an annoyed and disappointed look on her face, and places her left hand on her hip. The Aura displays for Pyrrha and Mercury show Mercury's is changing from green to red to indicate his loss.

"Next time you might want to think a little harder before choosing an opponent."

Mercury rolls his eyes while walking back "I'll be sure to do that."

An alarm sounds which jolts Blake, who has nodded off.

Glynda begins to address everyone. "That is all for today. And remember, the dance is coming up soon. And you all have your first mission on Monday! I will not accept any excuses.

As everyone leaves, Mercury stops beside Emerald.

"Learning is so much fun." He says to her in a sarcastic way, causing her to roll her eyes.

Walking outside the classroom, Yang starts talking to Blake.

"So Blake," she grabs Blake by her shoulder "You uh, doing okay?"

Blake shuts the book she was reading "I'm fine."

"So, are you excited for the dance, it sounds pretty awesome right?

"What?"

"The dance! Aren't you excited?"

"I don't have time for a stupid dance. I thought you of all people would get that."

Blake walks away past her team. Yang just looks down sadly muttering "oh…"

Ruby, Weiss, Alexis and Alejandro glanced at each other before Ruby went to comfort her sister.

"It's ok Yang, she'll come around to it." Yang nodded, looked up at her and smiled at her.

"You're right. I shouldn't let her bring me down. Speaking of which, I have somewhere to be." She proceeded to run off. "Later!"

"So, now what?" Ruby asked.

"We are going to the library to do our work." Said Alexis. Before anyone said anything else, she grabbed his arm and dragged Alejandro off with her…literally dragged him as his feet were just grinding along the ground. Weiss and Ruby just looked at him as she dragged him along before glancing at each other.

"Do you think he has a clue?" Ruby asked while looking at them.

"I doubt it. He is a very smart person and incredibly practical in most situations." Ruby nodded in agreement. "But sometimes…he can be a bit…dense… And you have to be as subtle as a tank in a church." Ruby nodded again in understanding…many examples coming to mind.

"The question though, is he as dense as Juane is about Pyrrah?" that was a tough one to call. But Weiss had full confidence…sort of…somewhat.

"Possibly." There was a small silence before Ruby spoke up.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Weiss turned and started walking towards the dorm.

"Since they are going to the library to do their work, I am going to the dorm to do the same."

"Mind if I go too?" asked Ruby? Weiss turned and raised an eyebrow.

"Are you going to study, or goof off like you usually do?"

"I promise I'll study!" Ruby was next to Weiss as they walked back to the dorm.

Weiss didn't mind Ruby's company. Having the red head in her presence calmed her, Similar to those relaxing baths. She couldn't quite put her finger on way that was, but she wasn't going to complain. Of course though, she wasn't going to tell Ruby that.

Weiss had grown up most of her life away from any sort of parental figure. Her father was ruthless when it came down to things such as her studies. He would always be in his office or away from home on business while she would be cooped up in the Studies Room or the library for hours on end, only being able to leave to eat or to go to the bathroom. Weiss mother on the other hand, wasn't like that at all. She genuine cared for her and for her sister, Winter Schnee. Her Mother, Ivory Schnee, would constantly fight her father, Nikolaus Schnee, about not only their daughters, but almost everything. They were married not out of love, but because of Business. They were in an arranged marriage. Ivory had told Nikolaus that their daughter wouldn't fall to the same fate as her. But her father wouldn't have any of that. Since they always bickered about everything and anything almost all the time, Weiss had to take the brunt of his anger. Constantly having to face him in fencing matches and what not. When Weiss decided to become a huntress, her father wanted to use it as an advantage for the inevitable arranged marriage that he would set up for her.

Her mother was obviously livid when she found out, but he already had a way to shut her up, permanently. One day, while Ivory was in Atlas for a Public Relations event, her limousine was rigged with explosives. The blame fell onto the White Fang, who weirdly enough took the fall. Weiss didn't know it was her own father, so her hatred for the White Fang multiplied tenfold. Around the age of fifteen, Nikolaus started to set her up with Suitors. For months, while she trained with best to become a huntress, she was also set up with many suitors. Each one of them rejected easily. She wasn't interested in any of them. In fact, she wasn't interested in men at all.

Weiss discovered that she was a Lesbian (or Homosexual if that term is a derogatory term, wouldn't want to upset the Feminists…) around the age of 12. Her mother knew and was happy that she had found her preference. Her father never knew, due to her fearing his backlash. So she had to pretend to go on those stupid setups with Men who were older than her, were arrogant, and sometimes they hit on someone else INFRONT of her, or something similar. Though the very last suitor she went with was completely different from the rest of the lot, and she smiles to herself every time she remembers what happened.

They both made it to the dorm and while Weiss took a seat, Ruby went to the bathroom.

Weiss began to think about everything that has happened since she arrived to beacon up to this point. Being placed on a team with a hyperactive, childish dolt as a leader, her very brute like sister, an ex-white fang operative, someone who could rival Pyrrah in the Arena, and the Head of a very, very large company. Being partnered up with said dolt. They have spent a lot of time together, and despite Weiss being….Weiss, she liked the company. Spending time with Ruby was something that slowly was becoming a favorite past time of hers. Not that she would admit it to anyone. She liked how Ruby would become childish at the sound of the word "Cookie" or how she would beam at Weiss when she said yes to anything. Or her eyes, and how she got lost in them. Blue eyes widened as she realized something.

'Well shit, I think I have a crush on my partner and team leader. No, I know for a fact I have developed feelings for my partner and team leader.'

While Weiss was caught up with her thoughts in the room, Ruby was in the bathroom.

Ever since Ruby had been paired up with Weiss, she took every second she could to admire her. She didn't care that Weiss came from a wealthy background. Or really anything of the sort. The fact that Weiss finally warmed up to her made Ruby feel happy. She had come to grips by now that she had more than friendly feeling for Weiss. But she knew that Weiss didn't swing that way. So for Ruby, it was just a fantasy. Regardless, spending time with Weiss was still something she liked to do. And despite her cold attitude, Ruby knew she could be nice if she tried….really, really hard… Sighing to herself, she washed her hands and left the bathroom. Stepping out she saw Weiss, who seemed to be in thought. Ruby watched her and drank in all her features. Her pale complexation, her ice blue eyes, snow white hair that was in a high off centered pony tail. Looking down, she noticed her smaller… ahm

'Bad Ruby, stop thinking naughty thoughts.' She took a seat next to Weiss, who snapped out of thought when she took a seat.

"So, where do we start?" Weiss grabbed a one of the textbooks, signaled for Ruby to grab her own before starting on the subject at hand.


	13. Chapter 13

Meanwhile...

"Come onnnnnn… Atleast stop digging your feet into the ground damnit!" Alexis groaned as she dragged Alejandro to the library. She hadn't spent time with him recently…With the last time they were together being two days ago…Okay so maybe it hasn't been that long, but damn it she didn't like the fact that she was alone at the library. Some guy with blue hair and googles came in and started hitting on her the other day and she had to leave in order to get him to back off.

"Lex, why can't we just go to our dorm?"

"Because, Weiss and Ruby are there. And you know very well that Weiss will actually make you study."

"Fair Point…"

Alexis had dragged him to their usual set of chairs. She was somewhat surprised at how easily she was able to drag him here, despite him dragging his feet onto the ground. Once they took their seats, they took out their text books, Alejandro took out 'an' laptop, which caught Alexis by surprise.

"A laptop? What other electronics did you bring here?" he contemplated for a second before answering.

"Well, my scroll, my watch, My Company Tablet, my personal tablet, my laptop, an external dock that connects to my laptop using PCI Express…. And a backpack with a very big battery reserve." She just blinked before shaking her head.

"Right."

As they were doing their work, Alexis couldn't stop thinking about what she saw during his sparring match against that one girl. They hadn't talked about their own semblances, so maybe that teleporting thing was his semblance. Her mind must've wandered for some time because eventually Alejandro noticed that she was spacing out.

"Lex? Alexis? You alright?" she blinked before she turned to face him, an expression of concern on his face. She nodded and gave him a smile.

"I'm fine, thanks for the concern." He raised an eyebrow.

She sighed "I was just thinking about your match against that one girl in Goodwitch's class."

"What about it?" she drummed her fingers nervously and bit her lip, trying to find a way to word her question without sounding too nosy.

"Your Semblance. And Weapons…"

"What about them?"

"Well, you never told us what your semblance does exactly. You told us about it, but never explained what it actually does. As for your weapons, well you said they overheat. And you showed off two new ones. So I was just wondering…"

"You curious about all this." She nodded. He shrugged, and closed the laptop. He turned towards her so he knew that she had all his attention.

"So my semblance, like I said before, is an artificial Semblance. Whatever chemicals were put into my body most likely stopped me from being manifest my original semblance. To cut a long and complicated story short, I can do a lot. Teleportation is one. Then I can do this thing where I can surround myself with my aura and like a torpedo, launch myself at a considerable speed."

"That Sounds impressive" He just nodded and grinned.

"Then there is this one move where I do a back flip, hit my opponent with my knee, then forward and again hit them with my knee. After which I do the torpedo thing but this time I go upwards, do a 180, and push him while in the air to speed up his fall, with the help of gravity boost down and land on him or her. Nine times out of ten I land on my opponent's abdomen." She just raised her eyebrows and nodded. "And I can sometime land on my opponents head." Alexis' Eyes widened.

"Oh my God, won't you kill them?"

"No, I mean I can just land on someone's head. Not as part of the other thing. Like if we are just standing in the arena, I can jump and land on your head."

"Like an Airship to a landing pad or something?" he nodded "Ah, fair enough."

They were both silent for a couple of minutes. What he described to Alexis was difficult to imagine so she wanted to see him perform those moves soon. They sounded cool but watching them should be better. Now onto the next order of business…

"Ok, now can you tell me the deal with your weapons? Aren't you supposed to be Mr. Fancy Pants with uber cool weapons or something? What's the deal with you having common people weapons problem hmmm?" she said that in a teasing tone. He just chuckled and shook his head.

"Did I disappoint her majesty?" he mocked back. She just smiled.

"Yes, her highness is very much disappoint in you. Son, I am disappoint." He then burst out laughing, and she immediately broke down in laughter as well. Eventually they both settled down, Alejandro wiping a tear from his eye. He tried to compose himself before answering.

"Alright, you highness." He took off his watch and placed it screen down on the table. "This is like the fifth version of this concept that I have built so far."

"Really?" he nodded

"Basically, it's a somewhat very powerful computer within the form factor of a wristwatch. I tried it with normal wristwatches, but it was almost impossible. Once the SmartWatch concept was unveiled, I was able to make something that worked. It's simple. I have the processor die on a small motherboard, the RAM, the memory, and screen all fit in here. The Problem with this particular version is that the processor I chose is notorious for being hot as hell."

"Or Yang"

"Or as Hot as Yang…if your into that." he winked at her which caused her to blush profusely. She then proceeded to hit him in the shoulder…again

"I've always wanted to make a joke like that…totally worth it… whatever it mean't" her blush subsided and was replaced with confusion on her face.

"You don't know what….Wait what?"

"Yang just told me to say it when the time was right, I guess the time was right judging by your reaction" he just shrugged. She just blinked, before waving him to keep going with his story.

"Keep going…"

"Anyway, that basically it. This wasn't exactly made to withstand such high temperatures. At the time, when I lived in Atlas, it was fine. Now, not so much. Back to the drawing board I suppose."

"What about your shotgun thingy? And your naming schemes suck by the way."

"Yeah, I know. BUT I DO NOT CARE so ha." Alexis just rolled her eyes and smiled. She enjoyed spending her time like this. No one really liked spending time with her as a kid. Her parents were either always busy working, or fighting. Her Older brother was the closest thing she had to a friend, and even he couldn't always be there. As she grew up, people approached her, but only for her looks. She didn't really know what she missed out on until she came to Beacon.

"Back to the shotgun thingy…"

"Alright, Alright… The shotgun is just that, a shotgun. Its lever action, the barrel was cut a full ten inches, and can shoot anything that is in a shotgun shell….or certain rifle cartridges if need be." She nodded "And because I am me, I am special. SO, I added some technologies to it. Electronic Stability Control reduces the kick. Automatic Rechamber allows me to fire twice without using the lever action. Electronic Suppression System shuts it up, making it a quiet medium range killing machine. Then there is the MBD, the ATS, and the 3DAPS" he said that as if it's the simplest thing in the world. Alexis was really confused at all the initials at the end.

"Um, what do the last three initials mean?" he blinked, remembering she didn't exactly know what they meant.

"Um, sorry. Didn't mean to confuse you." He rubbed his head sheepishly. "MBS is the Modular Barrel Design, I can expand or retract the barrel to fit the round it will fire. ATS is the Anti-Lock Trigger System that stops it from jamming by causing the barrel to heat up internally to extreme temperatures and melt the jammed cartridge. And the 3DAPS is the PNA exclusive-for-me 3D Ammo Printing System…Self Explanatory…" Her eyes widened at hearing all that. How did he do all that to a gun? "The look on your face possess a question. That question is 'How did you do that' right?" She just nodded dumbfounded. "Well, I used magic…and dark sorcery."

"How do you know what I am going to ask, before I ask it?" He shrugged.

"You have to learn to cover all bases. It's a habit for me now." She 'ahhed' before nodding. Well, there was more information she didn't know about him until know.

Eventually, they got back to studying. About fifteen minutes later, they were bored of studying and started talking again. Their conversation was just about small things like food and what not. Alexis discovered that his diet was a very poor one, consisting of Fries, Burgers, and mainly junk food. Oddly enough he hated hotdogs, which she found weird. They kept chatting until they noticed Blake walking by. They waved at her, but she didn't seem to notice them. Alexis shrugged and they went back to their conversation. Something about Vacuo FC being better than Atlas Saint-Germain or something.

* * *

The Faunus is sitting at one of the library tables with a holographic screen in front of her. She is obviously sleep-deprived, barely being able to focus on what she's seeing... until a small, bright red light appears on the screen. Moving up and down, Blake's eyes follow it down to her hand, then disappears entirely. She looks behind herself, irritated, but no one walking among the tables is the culprit.

Turning back to the computer, she starts typing on the keyboard before the laser dot appears on her hand briefly, prompting her to look around again and still find no one with a laser. The red point shows up on the screen, moving around in circles until Blake scowls and pounds her fists on the table. She stands up from her chair and finds the light on the floor, following it blindly through shelves of books until both the dot and Blake turn the corner, only for Blake to bump into someone and shaking her out of her more "animal" instincts, and into...

"He-lloooo!" Yang waves with her left hand as her right holds the laser pointer.

"What are you...?"

She grabs Blake's arm. "We need to talk."

"Ahh!" Yang whisks Blake away and they both end up in Ooblecks Empty classroom

Blake addresses the blonde, who is sitting cross-legged on the main desk of the empty classroom they're in "Yang, if you're going to tell me to stop, you may as well save your breath.

Yang just sighs "I don't want you to stop; I want you to slow down."

Blake paces with her arms crossed, irritated. "I don't have the luxury to slow down."

"It's not a luxury; it's a necessity."

Blake just scoffed "The 'necessity' is stopping Torchwick."

"And we're going to. But first you have to sit down and listen to what I have to say." She pats the part of the desk across from her.

Blake looks away for a moment until she relents and takes a seat, draping her legs over the desk's edge. "Fine."

"Ruby, Alejandro and I grew up in Patch, an island off the coast of Vale. Both our parents were Huntsmen. You already know that his parents were champions of Remnant. Our dad taught at Signal, and our mom took on missions around the kingdom. Her name was Summer Rose, and she was, like... Super-Mom: Baker of cookies and slayer of giant monsters. And then... one day she left for the mission with his parents, and they never came back." She looks down as she says this, and Blake looks sorry for her. "It was tough. Ruby was really torn up, but... I think she was still too young to really get what was going on, y'know? Alex tried his best to comfort her, despite him losing both his parents. And my dad just kind of... shut down for a while. It wasn't long before I learned why. Summer wasn't the first love he lost; she was the second. The first... was my mom." Blake looks amazed at this information as Yang keeps talking. "He wouldn't tell me everything, but I learned that the two of them had been on a team together with Summer,Uncle Qrow, and both Alex's Parents, and that she'd left me with him right after I was born. No one had seen her since."

Blake then asks the only question she can come up with.

"Why did she leave you?

Yang sighs, then turns to the chalkboard. "That question... Why?" she gets off the desk and walks to the chalkboard, picking up a piece of chalk. "I didn't know an answer, but I was determined to find out. It was all I thought about. I would ask anyone I could about what they knew about her."

As the reminiscent blonde starts drawing on the board, she begins talking again

"Then, one day, I found something. What I thought was a clue that could lead me to answers, or maybe even my mother. One day in particular, I waited for Dad to leave the house. That day, Alex was with Uncle Qrow. I put Ruby in a wagon, and headed out. I must've walked for hours. I had cuts and bruises, I was totally exhausted, but I wasn't gonna let anything stop me. When we finally got there, I could barely stand, but I didn't care; I had made it. And then I saw them. Those burning red eyes..."

"There we were: A toddler sleeping in the back of a wagon and a stupid girl too exhausted to even cry for help. We might as well have been served on a silver platter. But, as luck would have it, our uncle showed up just in time."

On the chalkboard, Yang finished her drawing of the events she had just told to black, finishing by drawing a clockwork eye.

"My stubbornness should've gotten us killed that night."

Blake tries to explain to Yang the difference "Yang... I'm sorry that happened to you, and I understand what you're trying to tell me, but this is different. I'm not a child, and this isn't just a search for answers! I can't just-"

Yang is still facing the board, fists clenching in irritation and anger. "I told you: I'm not telling you to stop! I haven't! To this day, I still want to know what happened to my mother and why she left me, but I will never let that search control me. We're going to find the answers we're looking for, Blake. But if we destroy ourselves in the process, what good are we?"

"You don't understand! I'm the only one who can do this!"

"No, you don't understand!" she turns around sharply to reveal her red eyes and the sound of flames bellowing behind her. "If Roman Torchwick walked through that door, what would you do?"

"I'd fight him!"

"You'd lose!" She pushes Blake away.

"I can stop him!" Blake tiredly tries to do the same to Yang, but she doesn't even budge.

"You can't even stop me!"

She pushes Blake again, knocking her to land on the desk. Yang, still angry-eyed, walks toward Blake as she gets up, but then does the unexpected and embraces her in a hug, her eyes going back to their normal purple.

"I'm not asking you to stop. Just please, get some rest." She pulls back to look at her partner. "Not just for you, but for the people you care about." She steps away and starts walking past the startled Blake. Yang winks down at Blake, and Blake stares at the blonde, a slight blush dusting her cheeks, as Yang leaves before sighing heavily and walking away, leaving the all-seeing eye on the board.

* * *

At Team RWBY's Dorm.

"You what?"

Ruby repeated what she had just said "We want you to go to the dance."

Blake just scoffed "That's ridiculous."

"Blake, we're worried about you. This investigation is starting to mess with your head." Said Yang, not trying to bring up the events of earlier.

Weiss then began counting facts on her fingers. "You can't sleep, you hardly eat, and to be honest, your grades have been suffering."

"You think I care about grades? People's lives are at stake!"

Yang puts her hand on Blake's, lowering it. "We know, and we're also trying to figure out what Torchwick is up to."

Ruby added onto Yang's statement "Thanks to you and Alex, we know that they're operating somewhere outside of southeast Vale."

Weiss nodded "And, the Schnee company records singled out Vale as the primary target for Dust robberies over the last few months."

"Don't forget about the PNC-SDC's missing military tech too."

"But there's still unanswered questions!"

Alexis added her input, sitting next to Ruby. "Blake, you won't be able to find anything if you can't even keep your eyes open!"

"All we're asking is that you take it easy for one day."

Alejandro had stepped out from the bathroom, and added to the conversation. "Overstressing yourself is just going to make your life difficult in the long term. A break could do you wonders."

"Plus, it will be fun! Yang and I will make sure of it".

"Yeah! We're planning the whole event!"

Yang pumps her fists which causes the bed to bounce Blake. Both Blake and Alejandro respond incredulously.

"Wait, What?!"

"Excuse me?"

Weiss began to explain the situation. "Team CFVY's away mission lasted quite longer than expected."

"So, Weiss and I decided to pick up where they left off. And now we can make sure you can have the perfect night."

"And once it's all over, we'll return for our search, rested and ready."

"So what do ya think?" Ruby asks, enthusiastically.

"I think this is a colossal waste of time." Blake walks away from the group and opens the dorm door. "I'll be back later." She proceeds to walk out of the room, closing the door on the way out

"Great."

"She can't keep going on like this."

There's a knock at the door and Weiss approaches and opens it. Jaune appears at the door with a guitar. Weiss is surprised, and behind her, Ruby is defying many laws of physics, with a finger under her chin. Yang is looking on surprised, Alexis is also defying many laws of gravity, and Alejandro is watching next to Yang, with an open bag of chips in his hands.

"Weiss!" he winks at her.

Weiss then slams the door in his face.

"Oh, come on, open the door! I promise not to sing."

Weiss pinches the bridge of her nose. Sighing, she looks on to the group, hoping for some assistance. All she receives is a hesitant shrug from Alexis. Seeing no other options, she opens the door.

Jaune begins to sing again "I lied! Weiss Schu-nee, will you accompany me, to the dance?!"

"Are you done?"

He shrugs "Yes?"

"No." She shuts the door in his face. Turning around, she sees the others staring at her. "What?"

The three girls and boy are standing precariously.

Yang points to Weiss "And that is why they call you the Ice Queen."

Ruby and Alexis finally take notice that they are defying many laws of physics, and finally collapse. Alejandro just glances at them, taking another handful of chips.

Weiss just scoffs "All my life, boys have only cared about the perks of my last name. Besides, I already have a date in mind."

Yang was surprised. "Really?" Weiss just nodded with a smirk. She did have a date in mind, but she would need some help. And she had a couple people in mind for conscription to her plan.

"Date or no date, none of this will matter if we can't get Blake to go." Yang looked out the windows, hoping that the Faunus would take what she had told her to heart and reconsider going

* * *

A Few days later…. Auditorium.

Ruby was resting her head on her hand and staring into the distance before she's startled by someone slamming their palms on the table she's at.

"I need you to pick a tablecloth." Says Weiss, smiling. She slides two squares over to Ruby, both seeming to be similar shades of white.

Ruby was confused. "Aren't they both the same?"

Weiss sighs in frustration. "I don't even know why I asked."

Weiss walks away as Yang comes in carrying a massive sound speaker on her shoulder, which bounces her sister and the table she's moping on again to jump in the air when she drops it on the ground. She is brushing her hands as she approaches Ruby. "So, have you picked out a dress yet?"

"What's the point? Who cares about the dance if Blake isn't going?"

"Oh, don't worry; she's going." She had a plan to get the Faunus to come, she just needed some conscripts to help her with her plan. She looks over to Weiss, getting exasperated. "Weiss! I thought we agreed: No doilies!"

Weiss walks up to Yang, pointing in her face. "If I don't get doilies, you don't get fog machines!" The girls are interrupted by the sound of doors opening.

Alejandro walks in with Alexis next to him. He is eating a bag of chips, seeming unfazed by the heat. Alexis meanwhile is red in the face. "Wait, the dance is gonna have fog machines?"

Weiss steps up to him, grabbing a chip and instantly regretting it. "We were thinking about it...Oh God that's hot!" she quickly runs off to get a drink.

"That's pretty cool. I mean, who doesn't want a fog machine?" Yang nodded in agreement. She also grabbed a handful of chips and before walking off to get the other speaker.

"So, I am assuming because of all this planning, you're all excited the dance?"

"Pfft... Yeah, right!"

Yang grinned, setting the speaker down. "Laugh all you want. I'll be turning heads!"

Weiss came back, her face back to its normal pale color. She had a water bottle in her hand with her doilies in the other. "What are you two wearing?"

Alexis shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't exactly pack for that. I'll just go dress shopping I guess." Yang and Weiss both looked at her with excited looks.

"We should all go dress shopping! I know this great place in Downtown where they have some of the most beautiful dresses!" Weiss said, enthusiasm leaking so much that Ruby was a little bit scared.

Yang nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I'm up for it. What do you say Lex?"

"I don't know…" she was interrupted by Yang.

"Come on!" Yang got close enough to where she could whisper to her and not be heard by her teammate. "I'm sure we can find a dress to impress that certain someone…Eh?" They both turned over to the person in question.

Ruby and Alex were sitting at the table, Ruby had grabbed the remaining chips from the bag. Alejandro was on his tablet, doing something with a pen on it.

Alexis blushed furiously. "W-what?" Yang's grin just got wider.

"Oh come on, everyone on this Team, Team JNPR, and Possibly even CFVY know that you have some more than friendly feelings for your partner. It's obvious to us, and to everyone except for him…"

"In the same way how you have similar feelings for Blake hmmm? I've seen how you try to cheer her up, and how you like spending time with her in the library. Looks like we are on the same boat then huh? With our respective partner's situation and all…" It was Yang's turn to blush furiously. Alexis just smirked at her.

"Wha-I do not!" she said that loud enough to get everyone's attention. "Heh, sorry"

"Yang, you ok?"

She just nodded "Yup, no problem here, just keep doing what you're doing Rubes! Just us having a little conversation… Over here…" She said that last part with gritted teeth and a forced smile. Ruby just shrug and went back to moping. Alexis just raised an eyebrow.

"Alright, I get it. How about this, you help me with Blake, and I will help you with him." He pointed to the person in question. He was now playing a game with Ruby, trying to cheer her up. She just saw a giant ball and some small blue cars chasing it.

"Hmm, I guess that seems somewhat fair. But you too need to talk more, get to know each other a lot more. It's been sometime and while you do know somethings about her, you need to find a common ground." Yang sighed.

"I know, but it's hard ya know? With the way she is. All to herself, it's hard getting anything out of her. But I'll try harder I suppose." Alexis nodded.

"Right, try to find something that she could be interested in. Obviously don't change who you are just for her, but look for things that she would like to do." Yang sighed again, but nodded.

"I'll try." Alexis smiled. "Now back to what we were discussing, the person YOU are trying to impress-" They look back to see Ruby and Alejandro trying to push a very large ball into a goal with small blue cars on the tablet screen. "What do you think he'll wear?" Alexis just shrugged. They hadn't talked about the dance.

Yang looked at her thoughtfully. "Well, that answer won't _suit_ us at all…Eh? Eh?" She elbowed Alexis as she just pinched the bridge of her nose. Yang then yelled over to her Red wearing sister and the boy with a weird obsession with Blue.

"ALEX!"

At that moment, Ruby yelled "GOAL!" and he just slumped back.

"WHAT? I AM OCCUPIED AT THE MOMENT!" he gestured at the screen, which showed a score of 1-0.

"WHAT ARE YOU WEARING TO THE DANCE?" He paused the game before getting up and turning to them.

"I-uh…decided that I'm not going" Team RWBY had all stopped what they were doing. Weiss obviously was the first to break the silence.

"What do you mean you're not going?" Yang and Alexis were instantly next to her, also looking at him questioningly.

He shrugged "I don't know, I didn't like going to social gatherings before. I just don't find the appeal of going if I'm honest." Yang saw an opening and went for it.

"Is it because you can't get a date?" he just scoffed.

"Partly, but mostly because I don't find anything exciting about them."

"Come On, you have to go!" Ruby was the one who said that, still sitting at the table. "First Blake, then you. If anything, I am the one that should be upset, I have to go dress shopping…bleh" she made a sick face to emphasize her point

"Please, Alex, come to the dance, it'll be fun! I swear on it…" Weiss declared, Yang agreed behind her.

He sighed "I don't have anything to wear. Obviously I can have some special clothing made, but I need to send measurements."

"Why don't you come with us? While we pick out our dresses, you can get measured!" Ruby nodded in agreement with Alexis' plan. Yang was mentally listing how this could favor her plan to get those two to stop beating around the bush…. Heh, beating…dirty.

Seeing as he couldn't find any other excuse, he accepted defeat. "Fine. BUT, I am only getting measured. I am not about to spend 6 zillion super billion hours in a store waiting for you all to pick one out and what not."

"Well, we need a male to give us input. And you're the closest thing we have." Said Weiss with a smirk, causing Yang's jaw to drop. Alejandro was not amused.

"The Ice Queen does have a sense of humor!"

"Haha, very funny Weiss." He pouted like a child. "Whatever, I'm bringing that-" He pointed to the object Ruby was playing with "with me if that's the case."

"So, to confirm, you are indeed going correct?" He nodded to Weiss question. "Excellent! Because I need your opinion on a lot of things." She grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him away.

"Not again….Ruby, take the tablet back to the dorm and plug it in once your done… I have a feeling I'm going to be here for quite some time…"She nodded before focusing her attention back to the screen.

They all watched as the Heiress dragged the CEO away, thinking they had seen everything. Alexis eventually opened up the next topic.

"So, what are we going to do about Blake?"

Ruby spoke up, pausing the game and looking at them "I still can't think of a way to change her mind. I've been texting her, but she just says 'no'."

"Guys." Ruby and Alexis look at her as she starts walking out. "Trust me; Blake will be at the dance."


End file.
